Happy Christmas

As Christmas is imminent now is the time to thank you for your support and interest in my blog, and to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a safe, healthy and happy new year.  I will be giving this blog a little rest for a while but will be back and hopefully able to show you some of my previous Christmas cards.  It's interesting to see how styles change and my style has improved, but until then here is this year's Christmas card to share.

It's in Cherry Cobbler, a lovely shade of red, embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper folder and embellished with the Snow Flurry die with Glimmer paper, Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler.  The greeting is the Heart of Christmas stamp we received at the Heartfelt Event.  Underneath the greeting I have stamped snowflakes from the Snow Swirled set in VersaMark, obviously not visible in the photograph. 

Enjoy your holiday break and enjoy the company of family and friends. 

 

A Haylee update

Apologies for lack of stamping but ...... I will get back to it shortly.

An update on my great niece (I am a great aunt!).  

Haylee went back to hospital on Monday for a check and to have the contacts removed, and the doctor is very pleased with her progress and says her vision has improved and healed well.  She will need to use eye drops for the next 6 weeks or so, but things are looking much better for her at the moment.  She is having a great time opening all the cards and packages that have been sent, some from people neither she nor her parents know.  If you were one that sent something, Thank you.  

Christmas wrapping

If you have ever received a package directly from Stampin' Up you will know that when they come everything is packed in a cardboard box with lots and LOTS of brown paper packaging inside to stop things moving around.  Usually this just gets thrown out, but in our house it is mostly kept and kept for  lining the tops and insides of cupboards and gift wrapping. 

 Add a touch of something special and it looks good. 

 

Stampin' Up Clearance Rack

 

Stampin' Up have temporarily taken over a hundred products out of retirement with discounts up to 70 percent off retail--only while supplies last! They have four different groups of products on sale between 14 December-21 January.  This week's sale items are listed below, or can be found here.

The first number is page from last year's catalogue, item no., description, retail price, sale price and the last two figures are NZ prices.  

11 124938 Tagtastic Stamp Set [w] $26.00 $16.00 $31.00 $20.00
11 122747 Tagtastic Stamp Set [c] $21.00 $14.50 $25.00 $18.00
15 121592 Dasher Stamp [w] $14.95 $8.00 $18.50 $10.00
15 125050 Elebration Stamp [w] $19.95 $9.95 $23.95 $12.50
15 125042 Something for Christmas Stamp [w] $19.95 $7.50 $23.95 $9.50
19 115902 Winter Post Stamp Set [w] $47.95 $24.00 $57.95 $30.00
21 121492 Christmas Greetings Stamp Set [w] $19.95 $10.00 $24.95 $12.50
21 116893 Tree Trimmings Stamp Set [w] $24.95 $12.50 $29.95 $15.75
22 121584 Welcome Christmas Stamp Set [w] $49.95 $18.75 $59.95 $23.50
22 120597 Welcome Christmas Stamp Set [c] $39.95 $17.25 $47.95 $21.50
23 125024 Tidings of Joy Stamp Set [w] $36.95 $18.75 $44.95 $23.50
23 122687 Tidings of Joy Stamp Set [c] $29.95 $17.25 $35.95 $21.50
25 121498 Contempo Christmas Stamp Set [w] $26.95 $13.75 $31.95 $17.50
25 120594 Contempo Christmas Stamp Set [c] $21.95 $12.25 $25.95 $15.50
25 113023 Season of Joy Stamp Set [w] $51.95 $19.75 $61.95 $24.75
27 115918 Happy Christmas, Mate Stamp Set [w] $37.95 $19.00 $45.95 $23.75
27 115820 Holiday Lineup Stamp Set [w] $38.95 $19.50 $46.95 $24.50
108 115930 Many Merry Messages Stamp Set [w] $64.95 $32.50 $77.95 $40.75
120 124338 In Color 2010-2012 12" x 12" Smooth Card Stock $18.95 $9.50 $22.95 $11.95
120 121701 In Color 2010-2012 A4 Smooth Card Stock $13.95 $7.00 $17.50 $8.75
120 124386 In Color 2011-2013 12" x 12" Textured Card Stock $22.95 $15.00 $27.95 $18.75
121 102277 Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
121 103133 Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
121 105211 Regal Rose Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
121 124291 Regal Rose 12" x 12" Smooth Card Stock $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
121 105108 Regal Rose Stampin' Write Marker $5.75 $2.95 $6.95 $3.75
122 101778 Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
122 124303 Wild Wasabi 12" x 12" Smooth Card Stock $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
123 119669 Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
123 105210 Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pa $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
123 111836 Riding Hood Red Classic Stampin' Pad $11.95 $4.50 $14.25 $5.75
123 124278 Garden Green 12" x 12" Smooth Card Stock $11.95 $6.00 $14.25 $7.50
123 124293 Riding Hood Red 12" x 12" Smooth Card Stock $11.95 $6.00 $14.25 $7.50
123 105110 Elegant Eggplant Stampin' Write Marker $5.75 $2.95 $6.95 $3.75
123 100080 Garden Green Stampin' Write Marker $5.75 $2.95 $6.95 $3.75
123 120971 Riding Hood Red Stampin' Write Marker $5.75 $2.95 $6.95 $3.75
124 120966 Basic Gray Stampin' Write Marker $5.75 $2.95 $6.95 $3.75
129 122357 Beau Château Designer Series Paper $18.95 $7.50 $22.95 $9.50
130 122349 Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper $18.95 $7.50 $22.95 $9.50
131 122369 Letters to Santa Quick Accents $18.95 $7.50 $22.95 $9.50
134 122468 Château Designer Printed 6" x 6" Ring Album $19.95 $9.95 $23.95 $12.50
134 103687 6" x 6" (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Post Album Page Protectors $10.95 $5.50 $22.95 $6.95
134 104521 6" x 6" (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Ring Album Page Protectors $10.95 $5.50 $22.95 $6.95
139 125059 Wild Wasabi 1-1/4" (3.2 cm) Striped Grosgrain Ribbon $19.95 $7.50 $24.50 $9.50
139 117288 Certainly Celery 5/8" (1.6 cm) Satin Ribbon $16.95 $6.50 $20.50 $8.25
139 125056
Cherry Cobbler 1-1/4" (3.2 cm) Striped Grosgrain
Ribbon $19.95 $9.95 $24.50 $12.50
139 117286 Real Red 5/8" (1.6 cm) Satin Ribbon $16.95 $8.50 $20.50 $10.95
139 111368 Old Olive 1/4" (6.4 mm) Grosgrain Ribbon $10.95 $5.50 $24.50 $6.95
139 109034 Real Red 1/4" (6.4 mm) Grosgrain Ribbon $10.95 $5.50 $24.50 $6.95
139 124322 Rose Red 1/4" (6.4 mm) Grosgrain Ribbon $10.95 $5.50 $24.50 $6.95
139 109026 Very Vanilla 1/4" (6.4 mm) Grosgrain Ribbon $10.95 $5.50 $24.50 $6.95
143 104337 3/16" Gold Brads $12.95 $6.50 $16.50 $8.50
147 119921 Log Cabin Smooch Spritz $7.95 $4.50 $9.75 $5.75
150 119876 Large Tag Punch $30.95 $15.50 $36.95 $19.50
160 116821 Holiday Windows Movers & Shapers Dies $54.95 $27.50 $67.50 $34.50
164 112968 Soft Holly Standard Stampin' Around Wheel $11.95 $6.00 $14.50 $7.50
w = wood-mount
c = clear-mount

They only went on sale this morning, but already some things have sold out such as: 

If there is anything you need, want or desire please let me know by Sunday afternoon 4.oo pm so I can order for you.  

You can check out the clearance items for the next three weeks too.  Here is the list for 21st December to 3rd January, This  is the link for 4-10th January and finally  11-21st January.  Orders for each week cannot go in until beginning of each date, but if you want to get in early send me the email so I can place the order on the first day of each weekly list.  If the links don't work head to Stampin' Up website. 

Quick Christmas cards

Here are a couple of very quick Christmas cards made recently using a borrowed Snow Swirled set and some leftovers from the Ornament Keepsakes set.                        

The greeting stamp is the Heart of Christmas stamp which we received as our Christmas present when we attended the Heartfelt Stamping Event recently.   

An update and a Christmas gift

Thank you to those who read through the previous post on my niece, actually she is my neice's daughter.  I can never remember what that makes me.  Stupid I guess.  

A little update anyway on how the operation went - Apparently Haylee was in surgery for over an hour and recovered quite well.  She came home later that same night (Monday) and slept through the night OK (not sure about her mum though).  She was given eye drops, but is only allowed to use 4 drops in total otherwise it can poison her system.  They were saving the final 2 drops for Tuesday night.  As of Tuesday morning she still hadn't opened her eyes as the light hurts.  They apparently placed contact lens in her eye to try and hold off the progression of the degeneration and she goes back to hospital next Monday to have the contacts removed.  Eventually Haylee will have to have corneal eye transplants but they are saving this for when she gets older.  So I guess she is feeling a little miserable not being able to do much for the next couple of days.  Hopefully her mum will read her lots of stories to keep her entertained.  

My sister (Haylee's grandmother or Nana) had collected quite a large bag of cards, letters and gifts from friends and family for Haylee before and after the hospital visit, and this has cheered her up.  So if you have the time, a card would be welcomed. The address is in the previous post.  

Here is a little gift made using the Petal Cone Die.  It's made in Cherry Cobber and inside is space to hold a few choccies or lollies, or it could even be used as a place tag for your Christmas guests. 

 

 

A get well card

My 7 year old neice in Queensland has recently been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which is an inherited disorder whose symptoms include double jointedness, easily damaged, bruised and stretchy skin, easy scarring, poor wound healing, flat feet, increased joint mobility, joints popping, early arthritis, joint dislocation and pain, premature rupture of membrane during pregnancy, soft and velvety skin and vision problems.  

Haylee went to a paediatric rheumatologist a couple of weeks ago and the doctor was suprised that she was not in any pain as she was one of the most flexible children he had ever seen.  Haylee has EDS type 3 but fortunately she is not in pain at this stage.  She does have very flexible muscles and can contort many parts of her body.  She has to be careful in life and cannot do a lot of normal sports, but can do low impact stuff like swimming, walking and cycling.  Fortunately she loves to swim and is apparently quite good at it.  Haylee does have flat feet, heart problems and problems with her eyes.  She now has to wear glasses all the time and also an eye patch for a couple of hours each week. She is finding the patch very hard work as she can't see much at all out of her bad eye, but they are trying to see how much sight can be restored to that eye.  She is also having physiotherapy to help her.  Her future life will involve lots of doctors, medical and hospital visits and is quite devastating for her parents and grandparents to deal with.  Haylee's brother Jack possibly also has a mild version of EDS.  

Anyhow, today Haylee is being admitted to hospital for an eye operation which will slow the degeneration of the eye, and this is the card I have sent up for her.  The zebra is the symbol for EDS and other weird illnesses.  This is not actually a stamp, rather an image of a stamp the owner let me use.

If you would like to send Haylee a card or a little letter please send them c/- PO Box 986, Park Ridge, 4125, Queensland.  

Thank you for reading through all of this.  

Gift bags and final ornament

These are the gift bags I made for the ladies in my class on Saturday.  Inside there was a little SU present and a couple of candy canes for Christmas.  

 

 I tried to find a template for a gift bag on the internet, but in the end just winged it and each attempt was progressively better.  By the end I had perfected the art of making gift bags.  I used the new Snow Flurry Bigz Die on the centrepiece with silver Glimmer paper and Crumb Cake on the Cherry Cobbler bag.  I hesitated about buying the snowflakes because we don't have snow in Australia, but it is so beautiful and I just had to have it.

After Saturday my friend accidently left her framelits here (I promise I didn't hide them from her) so I decided to make one more ornament while I had the chance.  Normally I don't do traditional Christmas red and green, so I challenged myself and used some Christmas papers left over from last year.  The top "petal" on each flower was done in solid colour with the flourish from Bliss Sale-a-bration stamp set inked on it.  The whole thing was sprayed with shimmer and in some photos you can see the sparkles.  Add a few pearls I found in the cupboard and you know what?  This one is my favourite of them all.  

 Like the dashboard in my car?  My daughter took the photos on her way to work.  Long story. 

 

My sisters birthday

Today is one of my sister's birthdays and this is the card I made very quickly for her.  It had to be quick to get it in the mail.  Normally I take a little more time to personalise birthday cards especially for the recipient, but on Sunday everyone wanted me to do something for them which shortened my time in the craft room.  So apologies for the lack of pizzazz.  

You probably noticed too that it seems slightly buckled.  That's because I sprayed the white cardstock with shimmer to make it sparkle and it warped.  Nothing I could do at that stage but send it off as is.  But Happy Birthday Robyn.  She is getting a big shot today and is so looking forward to it.  

And this is a photo of the 2nd ornament wreath I made on Saturday.  Marina Mist and Lucky Limeade with silver snowflake and shimmered all over.  Pretty!

 

Saturday's show and tell

Well, we had a great time on Saturday with our final get together for the year.  Sadly two people couldn't come but there was enough chaos at times to make up for them.  Most had a go at the ornament decoration on the cover of the Holiday catalogue and surprisingly only one used traditional colours.  Here are a few photos of the decorations from the day. 

 
One lady make 6 on the day with a little help.  We had a production line going at one stage, and then she finished them off at home.  Another lady is making hers at home after learning a few tips on the day. Fiddly, but fun. 

A few others concentrated on cards and here are a few made on the day.  Quite a collection.  Apologies for the poor photos.  

 

 

Apothecary Art

My sister asked me to make a card for one of her friend's birthday and this is the card I made for her.  It uses one my favourite sets, Apothecary Art, and my newest embossing folder, Vintage Wallpaper.  Black and white and a little Real Red.  Hope she likes it. 

Ornaments card

This is a card I cased from one I found on the internet using the Ornament Keepsakes set.  Again, non-traditional Christmas colours but black and white is so elegant.  

Ornament Keepsakes

Since joining Stampin' Up in July 2010 I have met some great people, some of whom I now consider to be great friends.  Some of my friends often lend me their things to try out, and sometimes we have used their products in classes where they let everyone use their goods.  This last week one of my friends has lent me their Ornament Keepsakes set with the matching framelits and they haven't even used it yet!  We are having our Christmas break up class on the weekend and another one of my great friends is lending her set too so we can have two sets going for all to use.  Crafty people really are very generous people.  

So, as I said, I have been having a little play with the Ornament Keepsakes this last few days and had a go at making "that" ornament, the one on the front cover of the Holiday catalogue.   This is my version. 

 

I have to say that it looks better in real life.  I used the shimmer paint to spray glitter all over it so it sparkles, and attached a ribbon to hang it by.  I try not to use traditional Christmas colours, so this is Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake.  

If you are thinking of making one, yes it does take a long time, yes it is fiddly and yes it is worth it.   

Another Clockworks

Hi, guess what I forgot to do on Wednesday?  Put up a post.  I just ran out of time.  Sorry.

Here is another card using the Clockworks Stamp Set.  Not many of my friends like this set, but even though it's a bit of an effort to use (you do need to use a stamp positioner to get the clockface on correctly - and even then it's sometimes not perfectly aligned) I think it's a good set to have, especially for doing male cards.  And I like the splodges too.  

 

 All done in black and gray ink the clock has been popped up for effect and a little bit of Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP added. 

Clockworks

This is the stamp set we received at the SU Heartfelt Sydney Event.  All of the make and takes on the day used this set and we got to keep it.  I had this on my wish list, so was pleased to receive it as a "gift".  

Was just having a play around with it on the weekend and this is what I came up with.  All the little clocks, cogs and wheels have been cut out because I don't mind a bit of cutting.  Some have been popped up to add a little more dimension and all have been shaded around.  Have also stamped the water droplets and map from French Foliage to go along with the vintagey theme. 

 

Another idea for the men in your life. 

Simply Soft Card

Think you recognise this card?  I have made a version of it before but wanted to have another go at it.  Last time I only used four squares of flowers, this time six.  It's a birthday card for a friend of one of my sisters who enjoys gardening.  I'm not sure about the ribbon though.  

There are two layers of blue, the first has been distressed on the edges and then the top layer run through an embossing folder on the edges and  sponged all the way around.  Same with the cream squares; the first layer distressed and the top layer stamped, embossed and then sponged.  Maybe I should have put a sentiment on it somewhere.  What do you think?

Another Heartfelt Make and Take

This is the second make and take from Heartfelt Stampin' Event on Saturday.  I'ts a little gift box made from the Two Tags Bigz Die with five small gift cards.  Again it got a bit squished on the train.  Everything was in a pack all cut out for us and we just had to stamp and put it all together, with one eye on our watches to make sure we didn't miss our booked demonstrations. 

Cute, but not really my kind of thing.  

The ones we didn't get to make on the day were a scrapbooking page and a set of 4 cards with envelopes in a larger vellum envelope tied with Baker's twine.  Will work on them later. 

Heartfelt Stampin' Event 2012

As mentioned on Friday, a group of us went into Sydney on Saturday to attend Stampin' Up Heartfelt Stampin' Event 2012 at the Convention Centre.  We had a great day watching demonstrators show some clever projects, seeing how some of the tools can be used, playing with a few of the products, checking out other demonstrators cards and projects and doing a couple of make and takes.  Some people are so clever the ideas they come up with.  Wish I had that knack.  We saw Christmas wreaths, bird house gift boxes, beautiful toppers for presents and lots of cards.  We all came home with lots of ideas buzzing around in our heads of things to try and make.  One of our group even won a prize in the lucky door competition.  We also had an interesting lunch with something in it no-one could identify but tasted OK.  

Before the event we were asked to make our own name tags to show off our creativity.  I wanted something similar for our group and of course mine had to be a bit different than everyone elses.  My excuse was I had more letters in my name so mine was a bit bigger!!  We all had owls on a brown background and our names in retired Summer Sun.  Of course I forgot to take a photo of everyone elses, but here is my badge.

 They were all blinged up a little with pearls and diamontes and I think they all looked good.  Of course there were some really beautiful and creative name badges but I was happy with ours.  Next time we might actually do some stamping!

This is one of the make and takes we were able to finish.  Everyone was given the Clockworks stamp set as part of the registration and we used this set to complete our projects.  This is a note pad cover complete with Simply Scored cover with Fancy Flower punch flower and Vintage Faceted Designer buttons.  Unfortunately it got a little squished on the train trip home.

 

There were four make and take projects in all, but we just ran out of time as there was so much to see.  And we still didn't get to see everything there.  If we go again we will have to make better use of our time.

All in all, a great day out.  

 

 

Cupcakes anyone?

This is the birthday card I made for one of my nieces.  Don't you love those edges?  I have used the Finishing Touches Edgelits; the pink one cuts like pinking shears and the white you can see quite well below.  The only problem is after each run through the Big Shot you have to clear out all the little punched out pieces, which takes a while.  I used the glad wrap sponge technique in the background and a piece of retired Sweet Shop DSP.

A group of us are heading off to Stampin' Up Heartfelt Stamping Event this Saturday at the Convention Centre where we hope to be wowed by ideas and gifts for Christmas.

More birthday cards

And a few more handmade cards.  

 

My birthday cards

I had my birthday on the weekend and our family had a long weekend away to The Entrance.  We stayed in an apartment which overlooked the water, very relaxing.  The place had a pool downstairs and our unit was on the 3rd floor with a spiral staircase outside to the rooftop where we had our own jacuzzi, BBQ and table setting.  Guess where we spent most of our time!  

So now it's back to work again so we can save for the next break away.  

Thank you to all my relatives and friends who sent cards.  Here are a few to show you what a clever bunch they are.