I did it!

Made my quota of cards - finished them today! I still feel as if I am on a roll and expect they will not be the last cards I make this year for Christmas.  I have cased a lot of them and some are just straight out of my own little head! All the cards made today were put onto various commercial blanks.

Here are some samples of some cards made today.  I ONLY have to insert the inners; write the Christmas letter; stamp the backs with my own stamp; write in the cards; put them into envelopes; create the stickers for the addresses and  put them on the correct envelopes and then......Hubby will post them for me! Wonder when I will get all  that done!!!!!

This is cased from one of the Waltzing Mouse team - no sure who - as I had the set but hadn't inked it all yet. SU card, scrap DP and Memento inks - Black and Grey, and stuff from my stash

I had three of these wooden deer - purchased in Melbourne last week - and was determined to use them.  A doily die cut, some DP from last year and ribbon, and Annabelle sparkles, and Prima flowers

Same ingredients except for the felt circle from my stash and the old leaf whcih had been laying around for a long time!

I still had a few of the flowers left over, so this is one created straight from scraps, a rub-on and a doily die cut.

A tag, a rub-on, a doily piece aged with Antique Linen ink

These cards were created using SU card, and DP, rub-ons, Copics for extra colour at times, and a star punched with a Fiskars punch into SU glitter paper.

Sweet Sixteen

That is the age of my second oldest granddaughter today.  She is a diva - sings, plays cornet, plays soccer  footsool, is in Rovers and generally is too busy for school! She is just finishing year 10 and will be going to Year 11 College next year - look out world!  Did I get her card made ahead of time?  NO.  Did I spend all day today getting it made?  YES. What is it about making a special card for a special person - why does it take such a long time? After I had smudged and torn my way through the card and covered up the errors - I was glad to hand it over.  Last thing was dropping the sentiment stamp inside back onto the card after I had stamped the sentiment so nicely onto the inner and having to remove the original one and replace it with another.  I usually don't stamp straight onto the inside of the card for precisely this reason - and it was a good thing too today!

I am going to enter it into CR84FN colour challenge #44:  Coral, Pink and Aqua

Over a hundred now.....

......and I spent five hours yesterday sitting on a stall selling Christmas stuff for Charity at the local public hospital, so didn't get much crafting time (grabbed a couple of hours in the afternoon)!

I really enjoyed playing with the alcohol inks and today I continued to play with my ink pads and 'painted' backgrounds a la Zindorf for a while, and then I went back to some wet embossing and then I just decided to make a stack using stamps, ink and bling!  Here are a few examples of sets made. (I usually make about 6 of a kind - then I get bored and need to move on!)

I am entering the last one in several challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Creative Belli Blog Challenge - a winter theme

Gingersnap Creations - Starry Night

SU Baubles and punch, Cherry Cobbler ink and sentiment from Season of Joy; plus some bling. The flourish is from one of Waltzing Mouse's newer sets

Just using up some embellies!

Season of Joy tree, masking and dabbing and spraying with smooch spray (white and gold for the sun), SU ribbon and Stickles; SU Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo are the colours and the sentiment is white EP

Masking and sponging and the stag from SU Going Postal in Momento London Fog; Copics to help colour the moon and the shadow under the stag; tree 'ribbon' added an then all sprayed with white smooch after a rub-on was added for sentiment

Seventy seven and counting....

Christmas cards made, that is. I have made a few today but got bogged down making ones using metal and alcohol inks, and only made four of these. Now I will have to make a few quickies to catch up as I need to make around 120 by Friday at the latest.

I am going to enter some of these in two Challenges:  UnstampaBelles for using no stamps and Crafty Cardmakers for using embossing powder. 

My first set were easy - some embossing using the Cuttlebug and some die cuts using three absolutely lovely Memory Box dies - a snowflake, a tree and a Frosty Border. Here are some examples - the base cards are commercial blanks (mostly) and the card I used for layering is mostly SU but there are some from the stash. It seems strange that they are winter themes and the sun was shining brightly this morning when the photo's were taken of the top three or four - makes the embossing look quite deep. 

I am entering this one above into a challenge at UnstampaBelles: no stamps used to create a Christmas card. I seems strange making cards with no stamps but I like the look of these. 

Thise one and the one below are also sprayed with white  mica spray, and the stamp used is from Waltzing Mouse and is embossed with white EP. The gold bling is from Kaiser.

My frosty border broke so I had to use it differently

These are the metal ones - again embossing folders and the Cuttlebug, but it is metal shim being embossed and coloured.  When dry I put black StaysOn ink over the top to try to highlight the embossing and  I then used Versamark and clear EP to get a shine back on it.  Some have two or three coats and some are done using UTEE. Its also quite interesting to see those commercial card blanks in real life and in the photo - they are much richer and more burgundy in real life - in the photos the blue is bleeding through and they look almost purple.

I am entering this in a challenge at Crafty Cardmakers, for embossing! It has both wet and dry embossing, as does the other three. 

Only one coat of normal EP. The frame is Shapeabilities and the sentiment is SU

Two coats of normal EP. SU card as the base card.

This one and the one below both use UTEE - the sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.

In real life that ribbon is a perfect match!

Jack's Birthday Card

As you know I have been in Canberra celebrating our grandson's sixth birthday - here is the card I made for him using the SU set Under the Big Top that we got at the Conference last month. The papers and card are all from SU.

The first photo is of the two recycled and reused brown paper shopping bags that I decorated to hold his stash of birthday goodies, as well as the card, a trifold one.

Page one

Inside the card - sentiment is from a freebie set of stamps that came with a magazine

The second page (or third?) - this style gives you 5 faces to decorate

Then I had a party on Sunday here - a workshop to make some tags for Christmas. They all made five tags at least and they were all different - and I took them all off the SU site !

Charity

Just a quick post - I am the sometime reader of a blog concocted by Jenny in USA known to thousands as The Bloggess.  She can be irreverent but is always amusing and/or inspiring to read.  I really love her page and it never fails to move me in some way.  Today it moved me to donate to charity - perhaps it may move you as well.  Here is her address if you don't know it:  http://thebloggess.com/

A similar charity to the one mentioned for homeless youth in Australia is Swags for Homeless:  here is their contact point www.givenow.com.au/swagsforhomeless/regulardonation

Merry Christmas

Summer is Here.....

We have been on the big island for a fortnight, visiting family for various events and doing some travelling and sightseeing along the way. I have some photos to show you of places and people and events. We went to Canberra via the Hume highway after catching the night ferry across the Strait to Melbourne - it was a good crossing and we got an early start to Albury and were able to visit friends along the way, and stayed the night there.  We got into Canberra just as Obama was leaving!

Hume Weir - full of water flowing into the Murray River 

Canberra - looking at Parliament house from the steps of the War Memorial,  down the Avenue and over the lake

Our reason for going to Canberra was because our grandson Jack turned six!  He is very cute and so well behaved (mostly!) while we were there. His sister Lily, who is a delightful young lady,  was also a reason for our visit as we had to meet her new kitten Zap - he was very cute and funny. 

Jack eating his dinner!

Lily setting the table - notice she wrote the number of place settings on her hand!

While in the War Memorial I tracked down the position of my great-uncles James and William  on the honour boards  there of soldiers who died in WW1 - James died at Gallipoli and William died in France. I placed a poppy for each in remembrance.  So many died so heedlessly in both the world wars - our family name is Laugher - and it is pronounced Law. 

We then travelled to Melbourne, this time going across to the East coast of New South Wales, and travelling down the coast line visiting all the little villages - we stayed a night at Merimbula and another one at Lakes Entrance in Victoria before making our way into the city.  My sister-in-law Judy and her husband Ken were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, with a party - it was great fun!

The party was at home (catered for) and she is carrying the wedding bouquet  my husband gave her - a replica of the one 50 years ago. You can see they were married at 16!  However, I can assure you they are both over 70. 

My MIL was supposed to be there to help celebrate but the night before she got food poisoning! She ended up in hospital and is still there as I write this, but is feeling a lot better is not a little peed-off!

Not bad for 98 on Christmas Eve!

 We arrived home on Wednesday morning after another good ferry trip back across the ditch. We got all the washing done on Wednesday afternoon and it rained a bit yesterday (Thursday) which was a good way to do things - this beautiful rainbow appeared outside the back door yesterday afternoon! The pot(s) appear to be either in the water of the bay or in the bushland over the road - must take a shovel and go digging.......... 

The wedding card for the niece! 

The Anniversary card - it was a bit lumpy-bumpy so made a box for it .  That's a Marianne die cut if you're interested.  The colours are a bit washed out - the gold is richer and the green leaves darker.  

Tag, you're it!

I have made a lot of tags lately but need to make a lot more - however, here are some, using a variety of stamps - freebies, WMS and SU -  and the die's are all cut from the SU Sizzix Big Tags or Spellbinders Labels 18. The string is either from Annabelles Stamps or SU Bakers Twine. 

Then I made some vintage cards, using the new Waltzing Mouse stamps I received in the mail and a lovely Verve postcards stamp, with images from Meg's Garden Designs Galore series of 12 x 12 papers.  Throw in some die cuts and lace, and background Figgy Pudding Christmas DP, some ribbon and sparkly numbers coloured with Copics and I had fun creating! 

My Beautiful Nieces

Yesterday afternoon we dolled ourselves up and went to a wedding in the beautiful Huon Valley, at a lovely winery called Home Hill.  We were there to help celebrate the wedding of my goddaughter and niece Rachel to her husband (now) Michael.  Her two sisters and Michael's sister were the attendants, and my great niece Chloe was the flower girl! Her brother was also supposed to be there but the attention was too much and he cried and ran away! What a beautiful day - I cried too. My brother and his wife walked her down the isle and the resulting ceremony was simple and lovely and the party afterwards was great fun!

Sister one - Louise - with the junior but shy grooms man Hugo!

Sister two  - Kellie - with her daughter the flower girl! 

Sister three - the bride! Walked down the isle by her proud parents. 

During the ceremony -those are grapes in the background folks

Going off for photo's - party was inside later

Congratulations Rachel and Michael!

November, already!

I was supposed to be tidying my area up and I found this sheet of Penny Black stickers that have been floating around for such a long time,so I made it up into six small note cards and then I made a box for them......I really was tidying up! 

The inside has a single sheet of white with the sentiment 'just a note' from an MFT set. The card used is all SU and from the newest in-colours.  The DP is all scrap pieces from my stash. Various dies are used to help frame the stickers in black SU card. The ribbon is from the stash.

Then I decided to make some Christmas cards, as I have CASed such a lot lately (I tend to copy/paste such cards into a word doc, reduced them in size and make then sepia or black/white so I just see the shapes an the sketch for the card, rather than be influenced by the colours so much; each page holds about six or eight CASed cards) so began on the first one on the page: it had an oval die cut holding an ornament which was what had attracted my attention to it - I only have ornate round or square dies, so decided to go with a round one, but then couldn't decide which shape to use, so ended up making six similar cards.  It had began with an SU card showcasing the bauble punch - so I had punched out six baubles from bits of left over Christmas paper and they were all looking OK......took me two hours to make the six!

The sentiment comes from a set of stamps from a magazine - the only thing I had small enough to fit the SU punch tag I was determined to use; the bauble is from an SU punch, and I punched the top of each one again in gold card and glued it on but you cannot see it in  most of them - to make an ornament top. The ribbon and string is from the stash, and the only ink used apart from SU for edging papers was the Momento Tuxedo Black. The card used to cut with the dies was also from my stash and is mostly shiny pearlised card in three different colours.  The dies are either Die-namics (Doily Duo), or Spellbinders - Picot Edge Circle and Star Circle. The DPs are from the scrap box of Christmas papers. I know one set is from Basic Grey's Nordic Holiday. The bling is mostly Kaiser. 

I am going to enter the Christmas Cards in the November Challenge at Samual Taylor's Crafts

There is only 57 days left until Christmas!!!  So this months challenge is "Christmas Cards".  Whether you have already made yours or still have them left to do then this is the perfect time to get ready.  Well done if you have already made yours (unlike me!!!) and if not then lets get cracking with them.

So the challenge this month is "Christmas Cards" show us what you have been up to

This months prize is a Martha Stewart Double Craft Punch "Icelandic Snowflake"