Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to pop in before Christmas is upon us to say a very BIG and incredibly happy...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
May this year bring with it the most wonderful memories, fantastic food, amazing company, special gifts and of course a real sense of the meaning of Christmas....

Our Lord and Saviour's Birthday-
It's the most precious gift of all!!!


I hope and pray that the New Year 2012 is full to overflowing with love, happiness, great health and wisdom for years to come! I also hope there is plenty of time FOR YOU and doing the things you love!!!
I'll be back in Jan some time to check on you and begin to share a new year of crafty goodness!
Thanks to all of you who have left comment love and even those who like to pop in and see what I'm up to! I appreciate soOoOo much the warmth and love, friendship and inspiration I receive from those of you in the blogging world!
A HUGE HUG to you all!!!!!! Take care and be safe, with many more hugs and kisses...

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 12

For the last of my 12 Days of Christmas I'm again showing some ornaments, well actually they are great tags too, so with it being only 4 sleeps till Christmas I thought a multipurpose project was a super idea to share! This way when you put them together you can hang some on the tree and add some to your beautifully wrapped presents under the TREE! YAY!

I used my newest Big Shot die, the Perfect Pennants, then in the middle is the triple punch Doily flower, stamped with an image from the Delicate doilies set. I of course AGAIN added some shimmer paint, Champagne is my FAV, the new and very beautiful Cherry Cobbler Twine (from in the Summer Mini) and a Pearl!! I love these soo much that I HAVE to make some more for me! These one's pictures where actually a gift for my fabulous team the Perfectly Rustics girls!!
I hope that you've been inspired from this years 12 days of Christmas, I'll pop in again just before the big day!!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 11

Hello all my lovely friends! Well this is my second last post in my Christmas inspiration and I've been thinking what would be best to show you all.......
So I've decided to go with some more ornaments, in fact these one's I made for my Stamp Club as their thank you gift for their support throughout the year!

I stamped the Tree from Forever Young set and then punched out a bird, after wards I added some glitter and coated front and back with Crystal Effects. Punch a hole with the Crop-a-dile and thread some ribbon!! It's soooo easy and this one was even made without a Christmas stamp!! (though I did add a greeting on the reverse side!)
That's it for my today, we're catching up with dear friend tonight for a Christmas BBQ so best be off and prep!

Monday, December 19, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 10

As promised I'm here today to show you how to make the paper Christmas trees shown in the IBC on page 17!! I knew when I saw them that they HAD to be made, so with the help of my brother actually while he was over from WA he nutted out the best way to make the cone and the rest was quite simple!!
For my cones here I've cut a 8"x8" and then with the 4" length I've rolled the cone and then cut the excess off. If you just tuck in the end, pointing down in the middle then wrap the cardstock around itself until you're happy with the shape. I try and get as small a hole as possible at the top too so it's easier to cover. Using SU's sticky strip adhere down end, then cut base till it's even.

Next you need to cut your DSP strips. For my larger tree I've done 12"x2" strips and then as you work up to the top you can use 6"x2" so there's not as much overlap. For the smaller tree I just used shorter lengths cut at 1 1/2" wide.

From here you need to add sticky strip on the backs of all lengths (i actually did mine after rolling them as you'll notice in the pictures but it's best to do first so your curls don't get squashed!!
I had a little helper in the office!! She gives the biggest CHEESES when she sees the camera!

Roll the DSP ends to make them curly!! I used a pen! Try and do it as firm and hard as possible, this will give you a very lovely curl! (thanks for the tip here Loretta!)

Start sticking the DSP to your cone. Start at the bottom with the curl hanging over the edges, so when it's completed they will sit up and your cone will be covered (no peeking colour underneath!)
Keep on going... and going .... and going..... each time I start I make sure the curl is overlapping the edge of my last piece.... Does this make sense???


Once close to the top carefully wrap around until happy and squeeze in together!!

Lastly I sprayed my trees the silver Smooch spray! It looks really cool and adds the sparkle it needs!

I gave these to my sister who LOVES things simple, I showed this at my last stamp club for the year and we added all the tinsel and topped it off with the star!! Do what you like with the finished product!!!

I'd love to see what you do, please send me a link if you give it a try!!! See you tomorrow,
only 2 days left of show and tell!!!!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 8 & 9

I didn't even turn my computer on yesterday!! WOW that's a huge thing for me, I was soooo busy gardening and spending time with my FAMILY ALL DAY that the office was not a place I visited!
So my apologises for combining 2 days of Christmas together!! I'm sure you understand!
I have some more of my FAVOURTIE cards that I've designed this year and also a sneak peak at what I'll show you tomorrow!!
Here is the first on my TOP FAV cards I've been happily writing on this last week

And now the red theme continues with some more Real red and textured background....

What's your favourite one here??? Red is such a classic Christmas colour don't you think!?!

Lastly here is my sneak peak for tomorrow.....

I'll be most excitedly (is this a real word?? hmmmm) showing you step by step through this little Christmas Tree!!! I feel in love with it in the Idea Book and Catalogue and it was a MUST to try and make, so I'll show you HOW!!!
Until then have the most wonderful day, eve, afternoon, morning

Friday, December 16, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 7

One of my favourite Stamp-a-stack cards this year would have to be these....

I think it's the colour of the rich red with the Early Espresso, perhaps because I've used one of my favourite ribbons, or that there are some pearls which I think always add that special touch! Either way, I'm loving that I have at least 10 of them and that they're all written in waiting to be given to my lovely friends!

Have you got all your Christmas cards made? Do you have them all written in?? (my little finger is STILL hurting from writing over 40 on Wednesday! he he)
Have the most wonderful Friday,

Thursday, December 15, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 6

For the last few years I've wanted to hold a Christmas party! What a wonderful opportunity to get together with close friends and celebrate the season! In saying that it all comes soooo quickly that before I know it it's TOO late to send out invites and so it sadly gets passed by! When thinking about this last year we decided to do a New Years Eve party, this turned out SUPER FUN and everyone had a fabulous time. This year however I really wanted to get on the job early and so it was soon top of my "to do" list and it went ahead! YAY!

If you're thinking of having a party, whether it be for a few or for many it's not too late to organize one.... perhaps a New Years one is the way to go or even one in the New Year, early Jan! It can often seem too hard but the rewards of hanging out with those you love (chosen to love) are great and you certainly wont regret it!!!

Stampin' UP! have some really wonderful invitation sets and with some glitter for the season and an image you have them done.... EASY! (of course I'm big on texture and adding more ink, ribbon too but they can be involved or as easy as you like!!) I had lots of fun designing these and was really happy with the end result! Oh if you'd like to stamp the envelope the Winter Post stamp set is FANTASTIC for this with it's post mark stamp and vintage style!!
I hope that you are getting some great ideas for this Christmas time, I'm sure enjoying sharing them with you!!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 5

One of the most fabulously FUN things that I have made this Christmas would have to be the Bingo Game set! Oh what a great time it's been, colouring all the images and working out were to put them on each board (you have to place them in different spots so that it's fair when winning time comes!) and then playing the game!!

My Grandad when he lived here would LOVE to play a game of Bingo with me and the children, so this game has fond memories of precious moments past. The Jolly Bingo Bits goes PERFECTLY with the Bingo card Background stamp so it's a snap (as they say in the US) to make! I went with the colours from the NEW DSP Letter's to Santa and then punched out the disc's in the paper too!
It was fun watching the children play, I would call out the image (from the larger disc's) and they would place there coloured disc on the correct spot. The first one to get a ROW shouts BINGO and that's who WINS!!

Zeke made a pattern with his disc's,
I love that he went with Red and Green!
When I played I used all the colour disc's to make
everything co-ordinate,
it was very interesting to see how
everyone chose different themes.


Of course that's not enough for my treasures, they have to see who wins first in covering the WHOLE BOARD! One of my friends calls this WIPE OUT! It was such a blast and I've since then made at least 7 Bingo packs for friends!
What a super duper fun and cool gift for you to make! LOVE IT!!! Just LOVE IT!!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 4

Just a quick one today! (soon as there is only 1hour left of TODAY! he he)
This gorgeous card was given to me on Saturday by BEC! How awesome are those silver ornaments!! How did she do it I hear you ask?? Just glue Foil to card-stock and run it through your big shot embossing folder, punch out the desired shape and..... there you have it!! :) Oh and how cool is that scoring line at the bottom! Who thinks of that!?? It's such a great touch!!!
Thank you Bec for a lovely card!! See you tomorrow for more Christmas ideas!!

Monday, December 12, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 3

I recently held a Christmas card Stamp-a-stack and had the most wonderful time making these cute little cards! They were SUPER easy and the little images were soooo fun to play with and make up different combo's!! I got my inspiration from the lovely Danielle Daws HERE. Every year I buy in a new Christmas set and this year I chose Jolly Bingo Bits! The children and I have had a blast making Bingo games too! (will see that in a post soon!)

Gorgeous Belinda getting her Jolly images right!

The very lovely Heather stamping away!

Bec (my talented down-line) and others!!

So here are the cards we made!!


Sunday, December 11, 2011

12 days of Christmas (inspiration) day 2

Hopefully by now you've got your tree up and your home is looking festive! I've had lots of fun making different decorations this year, one of them being with the wonderful Fabric that Stampin' Up! sell!! I recently ordered the Deck the Halls pack and got my big shot to work cutting out various sized circles in the 3 patterns of fabric. From there I simply layered them, put on a packing piece (for when they sometimes spin around on the tree) and added a button or a brad! I glued on the backing piece with crystal effects... SO LOVE THAT STUFF!!
It was then to my ribbon draw to choose some favourites and they were all done! EASY!! Perhaps you could give them a try, I'd love to hear if you do!
Happy making