11.18.09
Baby Card
I’ve been busy over the last few days preparing for a Stamp-a-stack this coming weekend. My main problem is I can’t decide which card to make. I’ve made so many over the past few weeks, it’s so hard to decide. Then I have them picked and I find out how many guests are coming and I think that maybe I should do one that uses a stamp set that I can borrow from my upline, so that we have 2 sets available on the day. Only to find out that we don’t have that many Christmas stamp sets the same, certainly not the ones that I had picked to use. So it’s back to thinking…. could I do the same design, but with different stamps, do I design yet another card, are the cards too complicated, and so on. Maybe over time this gets easier? The more stamp-a-stacks you do, the less thinking you do about them?
Anyway… here is a card I made for my cousin and her husband when they had their first baby earlier this year. They had a beautiful little girl, Lillian, and this was one of the first cards that I made.
I keep changing my mind about these colours. The Bold Brights was the first colour pack that I bought. However, I go through periods when I think that they are just too bright. I guess it really all depends on what stamp sets you are using, who you’re making the card for, and what the occasion is. There is a new stamp set coming in the summer catalogue that I used yesterday to make a card. I used bright colours and it looks fantastic! I’ll post it a little closer to December.
Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac, Gable Green and Whisper White
Inks: Pink Passion, Yo Yo Yellow, Lovely Lilac, Wild Wasabi (retired)
Stamp Sets: Garden Whimsy, Priceless and Warmest Regards (retired)
Others: Dimensionals, 2 way glue, Dazzling Diamonds
Thanks for looking!
11.14.09
A Wedding Anniversary Card
Sorry I haven’t posted anything recently, I’ve had a really busy few weeks. I’ve got lots of cards to get ready to post. I going to try to come back over the next few days and get some of them posted.
This is a card that my friend Kelly made. It’s for a couple who are celebrating their 50th Wedding anniversary. It’s based on a card we found on SCS here. I love the original card, love the colours and really love the ribbon (which we don’t have here in Australia). I like what my fiend Kelly did to tie in the gold colour that represents the Golden wedding anniversary. Baroque Motifs flourish is embossed in gold in the background, before the top layer with the square from the same set is added. It is stamped in Ridinghood Red (I think). Gold ribbon came from Kelly’s stash, it’s not Stampin’ Up!
10.29.09
A Christmas Card
I can’t believe Christmas is so close. I went to K-Mart today to lay-by some sleeping bags for the kids. It’s the first time Anna has seen me lay-by something, and she was most upset that we had to leave them behind. I’ve really only just started my Christmas shopping, which is a little scary! My major problem is ideas. What do I get everyone??
At least my Christmas cards are all going to be made early. Now to write on them all. Here is a Christmas card I made for a future Stamp-a-stack. I bought this stamp set because one of my regular stamp-a-stack attendees requested we use it, and it really does reflect the true meaning of Christmas. I really wanted to use the Riding hood red 1 1/4″ Striped Grosgrain ribbon that’s in the Spring Mini, but I just couldn’t work out where to use it, so in the end I just left it off. I will keep thinking though and see if I can come up with any ideas. 
Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Confetti Cream, Riding Hood Red, Garden Green, VeryVanilla
Inks: Riding Hood Red, Garden Green
Stamp Sets: Christ is Born
Other: Scalloped Edge Punch
10.25.09
High Tea
What a weekend! I spent Friday afternoon swimming for the first time this season, Josh (my 2 year old) crying for 90% of the time. I don’t know what he didn’t like. He loves his bath and shower and loved playing under the sprinkler on Wednesday. Friday night we had a family dinner for my sister Mels’ 27th birthday. Saturday morning I raced off to a craft stall before heading into the city with my sisters and mum for High Tea at the Swissotel. It was a belated baby shower for my sister Carolyn who had Freya earlier this year. Freya was 4 weeks early, and Caro was in hospital for 4 weeks before she was born, so we missed out on doing this pre-baby. I had never been to high tea before, and as a non tea or coffee drinker, and not a big fan of pastries, or any really fancy food I was a little nervous. It’s a lot of money to pay if you’re not going to eat or drink much. I would highly recommend the Swissotel for High tea. The staff were so helpful and so ready to serve. It buffet style and the food was excellent! Sandwiches, hot pies(I think chicken was inside), chessecakes, profiteroles, lemon meringue pies, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, sponge cake roll, scones, and then there was the chocolate fountian with a variety of fruit, mashmellows and cake to dip in. All you can drink tea (for the tea drinkers), juice and water. What a feast!!!
Here are a few photos to make your mouth water.
And a couple of photos of my mum and sisters being silly. We were hidden away in a little alcove area, with gorgeous chairs and a curtain we could pull across to give us privacy if we wanted it. I loved the red wall behind Caro below!
I’d love to experience this again. It was so much fun!
Card for Mel
I mentioned earlier that we had dinner for my sister Mel and her 27th birthday. Her birthday is tomorrow, but she lives in Wagga and was returning to Wagga last night, so we had it early. Here is the card I made for her. Mel’s favourite colour is red and she is very musically talented, and I had purchased the stamp set Elegant Notes before it retied last April because it was so elegant and had beautiful music related images. I gained inspiration from speedystamper although I made a couple of changes. I didn’t have the DSP that was used in the card, so I made my own patterns. I also didn’t have any whisper white ink (tragic I know), so I couldn’t outline the oval with the treble clef in it. I ended up taking the tied ribbon off and just had a piece of flat ribbon tucked under the red oval. I felt that the tied bit was just too over the top for Mel. Thought she’d prefer a simpler ribbon usage.
Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red
Inks: Real Red and Versamark
Stamp Sets: Elegant Notes, Friends 24-7, Season of Joy(tiny flower), On Your Birthday (inside, not pictured)
Others: Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, White Embossing Powder, Curly Label Punch
Thanks for looking!
10.19.09
An Engagement Card
What a wonderful spring afternoon we’ve had today. Sun, a little breeze and fun with the kids in our backyard. It’s been wonderful. Earlier in the year we turfed a portion of our backyard. It now looks fabulous. We still have a bit to turf, and a garden to finish, then the yard will look fantastic! I spent a lot of time playing in the backyard as a child, so I wanted a backyard that my kids could play in, lots of grass for soccer/football/running games. Lots of room to ride bikes. It’s great!
Anyway, here is a card I made last week for my husbands cousin who got engaged earlier this year. I’ve been a bit slow in making it. I had in my head what I wanted to do, just needed to get together with someone who had embossing gear, as I don’t have any yet. My good friend Kelly came to visit for a card making day and we both got some embossing done. I have embossed En Francais in clear. I have since learnt that you cannot stamp over an embossed image, it just doesn’t work. I had to go back and start the card again. I stamped the big stamp from the Baroque Motifs set in Bravo Burgundy, then stamped En Francais in versamark and embossed in clear. I used my Pretties kit for the first time, adding some half pearls on top of the ribbon.
You can see the reflection from the table on the card, it’s not some special technique. : ) I added some very vanilla to the inside because I really wanted to use the stamp Wishing you a lifetime of love, and it’s hard to write nicely on the dark card. I’ve used silver or gold pen in the past, but it can look tacky. Here’s a look at the inside. Again you an see the sun reflecting off the table.
Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Bravo Burgundy and Very Vanilla
Inks: Bravo Burgundy, Versamark
Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Occasional Greetings, Life’s Special Moments
Accessories: Bravo Burgundy 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Cream halfback pearls
Thanks for looking!
10.11.09
Christmas Stamp-a-Stack
Hi everyone, I’m trying to get myself organised for the stamp-a-stack I’m hosting next week (Friday 16th October 7pm). I’ve made a few Christmas cards, it’s now a matter of choosing which ones I’m going to use this time, and which ones I’ll do in the November SAS. Here is a sneak peak of one of the cards which I cased from Splitcoast Stampers, you’ll find it here. It’s using one of my favourite Christmas stamp sets; Season of Joy. It’s so versatile. There are so many options for what you can do. It was one of the first stamp sets I bought when I was introduced to Stampin’ Up! last November.
The colours Old Olive and Real Red go beautifully together! If you are interested in coming to my Stamp-a-stack let me know by Wed 14th Oct so that I can have all the materials ready for you. Cost is $20 for 10 Christmas cards. Address will be supplied upon contact.
10.05.09
Joshua’s Party
We had a wonderful day on Saturday. We had a morning party for the first time, not sure I’d do that again. Josh had a wonderful time, he ate all morning. We have wonderful family and wonderful friends who helped us celebrate his 2nd birthday. Making the cake was a mammoth task! I wanted to do a train to match the invitations. Here is a photo of the finished product. I was quite happy with it, and the best part is it tasted great! I just love the chocolate cake recipe that I inherited from my mum, and the butter icing out of the birthday cake is always a winner!
Joshua's 2nd Birthday Cake
We have spent a lot of time and money on fixing up our backyard in the last 12 months or so, in preparation for our kids birthday parties (which we are doing every two years). Unfortunately for us both parties were rained out,and the parties were held inside. So all the things that I thought the kids could do at Joshua’s party were out of the question because we were now inside. One of the activities that we could do was making face biscuits. The kids really enjoyed this. I iced the biscuits for them, and they got to decorate with a variety of lollies that we’d placed on the table. Here is a photo of Josh eating his face biscuits.
Josh really enjoyed eating the lollies and licking the icing off the biscuits. I got some lovely cards from my Stampin’Up friends, which I will post later. Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate Joshua’s 2nd birthday.
09.29.09
Joshua’s 2nd Birthday
My little boy turns 2 on the weekend. The last 2 years have gone so fast. Josh has grown up so much in the last few months. He is definitely not a baby anymore, he’s a toddler. Talking more and more, throwing lots of tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. He is no longer content to be bossed around by his big sister Anna, he wants to be his own boss. Josh is getting more and more adventurous and getting himself into lots of messes, with mud, dirt, butter, any sort of food. Being a mum of a boy really is different to being a mum for a girl. I’m really enjoying this age, he’s so much fun!
Anyway it is Josh’s b’day on Sat and we are having a little party for him. It’s his first party and he is really excited (about the cake and balloons anyway). We’ve gone through the cake book and selected a cake (the train one, just a bit of a challenge for me) and so I based this invitations around this. He was so excited to see me buy the Choo Choo stamp set out of the spring mini catalogue. It’s such a great price, just $29.95, and the coordinating wheel Right on track $11.95. These are only available until the end of November. If you have little boys in your life, it will come in handy.
As usual I had a look on Splitcoast Stampers for some inspiration. I came across this invitation by mandypandy. I wanted to something a little different though. The last 2 invitations I had sent out were straight A7 size, with various layers. I wanted to something different. So I decided to fold it. I used similar colours to what mandypandy had, just leaving off the tangerine tango, and sticking with the real red. I’ve coordinated the plates/cups/serviettes/tablecloths with the colours used on the invitations and 3 colours were enough (red/blue/green).
Invite closed
Invite Open
The Folds
I was really happy with the way they turned out,and Josh loves ‘his’ train.
Invite Recipe:
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Green Galore, Whisper White
Inks: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Green Galore and Basic Grey (stamped off)
Stamp Sets: Choo Choo, Right on Track Wheel, Basic Phrases
Others: Oval punches (Small and Large), 1 1/4″ Square Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Thanks for looking!
More Cards from Our Watato Fundraiser
Here are the remaining four cards from our Watoto Fundraiser . Looking at all 8 cards, we had a nice variety of styles, techniques and colours.
