Hey there!

I can’t believe that it is over a week since I have been on to say hello! I am sorry you have had to wait so long, but it is the SILLY season, and I have been silly busy indeed. I am sure you can all atest to it as well!

What a start to the school holidays! I feel as though my feet havn’t hit the ground for 2 weeks, but at least we are all well, and have been blessed with wonderful Christmas celebrations.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We certainly did. My brother’s girlfriend Kate arrived from the US this past week, so it was so wonderful to meet her at last, and she is just GORGEOUS both inside and out. We are going to have a ball whilst she is here. Oh and yep she did get my package, and was a crying mess (so she tells me!) so that was really nice.

Here is a picture of my brother Bryn and Kate yesterday at Christmas lunch:

As you can see Bryn is soooo happy with that smile from ear to ear, and twinkle in his eye! And well of course Kate it happy to be here too…….a little strange for her to have her very first “Aussie HOT Christmas” rather than wearing sweaters and being in the snow!

Oh and I just have to show you this piccie, hubby got of me with my not so sexy Christmas bon bon hat on!

So we had a wonderful Christmas celebration, as we remember the true meaning, of Christ birth, and gift to all of us! - How precious!

We got home to unload the car, and head to bed, becasue I was up till 3am on Christmas eve finishing of the table decorations that I was making, the card folders for the aunites, and the Choc top boxes for the Uncles……talk about leaving it to the very last minute!

THEN ……this morning we had a Suprise Birthday Breakfast for Rod’s brother David who is turing 30 in a couple of days. Since many of us will be away, we thought it would be nice to celebrate with Dave before hand, so it was at our place with the whole extended family! What a beautiful morning it was too.

So up early again to whip up the pancakes, hash browns, and crossaints for everyone…..what a feast……again! I swear I won’t need to eat for a week!

I took some photos of the boys as we like to call them (Hubby is the oldest of 6 boys!) and it isn’t very often that we capture them on film together, so after lots of nagging, I managed to get a couple.

My hubby is the oldest and he is on the far right, and then there is Paul, Anthony, David, Matthew, and Ivan. Can you see the resemblence??!! And here is one with their Mum and Dad, on our front stairs.

These boys share such a special bond too! They all love to fart, burp, and play wrestle with each other…..spose the bad manners comes from growing up with ALL boys, much to theirs wives disgust! LOL!

And then last of all we have been packing like mad this afternoon as we are heading down to Busselton for a week! It is going to be sooooo nice to get away. I have been changing my mind every day whether I will take the laptop to keep in touch with everyone, but have decided not to, which put a wonderful big smile on Hubby’s face!!!

So whilst I love to keep in touch, and here from all of you, I am having myself a little (I like to think well deserved ) break, and hopefully I will be all recharged for a New Year of Inkspiration!!!

Take care, and I really look forward to being back!

Hey again,

I thought I should show you that cards that I made for my Stamp club this month for the ladies in Rockingham! It was fun, once again to see these gorgeous girls and to hear of all that has happened in the past month since I was there last!

So this month I focused on Crayon resist, and Suspension cards as the techniques, both of which were lots of fun.

Here is the Suspension card they all made:

Here I have used Pomegranite cardstock for the base which I have stamped some of the scrolls from Stampin’Up’s Priceless stamp set on the base. I have then added a strip of Pumpkin pie cardstock that I have scallop edge punched along the bottom. The next layer is some spotty paper from the Bali breeze paper pack. The circles i have layered with the little flower, again from the Priceless stamp set and blinged up with some glitter. The suspension is held with some dental floss inbetween two punched out circles in the center.

Then for the crayon resist card:

Here I have used the delicious-o Ginger blossoms paper that I just can’t seem to get enough of (or hadn’t you noticed?) LOL!

I have used Ruby red cardstock for the base that I have rolled with the Lots of dots jumbo roller. I then added that wide strip if ginger blossoms paper mounted onto some guava cardstock that has been scallop edge punched at the top, also adding some double stitches guava ribbon in the centre. I have stamped the large flower from Stampin’Up’s Embrace life stamp set with Stazon ink, onto white gloss cardstock. I then applied the white crayon where I want it to stand out, and then rubbed the centre with guava ink, and ruby red ink around the outer edge. Finally I added a god brad in the centre of the flower, and also at the top right hand corner of the card.

Enjoy!

Hi Ya,

So I bet you are all wondering who I would pick for this weeks Challenge winner…….Hmmm hard one again! But in the end i loved this card by Monique! - also known as Monnie Moo!

Here is her beautiful creation:

 Monnie, always make clear, crisp and beautiful cards! And she is a fab walking partner at obscene times in the mornings! You can see more of Monnie’s beautiful work at: www.chocolate-sunsets.blogspot.com

Be sure to go and check out the other entries, there are some real beauties! Go give them some comment love!

Susannah - www.siredaledesigns.blogspot.com

Nicole - www.stampingdownunder.wordpress.com

Tracy - www.tracsscrapdesigns.blogspot.com 

Kristy - www.kraftkrsity.blogspot.com

Judy - www.hookedonstamping.blogspot.com

Zarna - www.zarnasworld.blogspot.com

Vicki - www.vickiwarnaarstamps.blogspot.com

Mandy - www.mandyschiller.blogspot.com

Sooooooooo there you have the challenge round up for this week AND 2008! I have so enjoyed doing these challenges with you all this past several months! I have been so excited to see all your entries, and am constanly blown away with all your talent and creativity! I hope you have had a blast as well, and will be all rested, up and ready to start them again on the 9th of January!

Take care! 

 HI there!

I hope you are all well, and had a great weekend! I certainly did Yep I took the weekend off, from stamping, emails, etc…. and didn’t spend anytime on the computer, AND I had two afternoon sleeps too. Like a true Nanna. I have now caught up on my sleep, and am feeling so much better which is great. So hopefully I can catch up on here, and get some more inspiration for you all this week…….well that is the plan!

So to start off the new week, here is the Make it Monday for you this week:

Carousel Note Handbags       

Materials Required:

• Paper trimmer
• 2 Carousel notes
• Ribbon
• Jumbo eyelets
• Crop-a-dile
• Stamps
• Stamp pads
• Adhesive
• Bone scorer

Step 1:

Take two Carousel notes, and cut 4 scallops off at a straight line.

Step 2:

Where you have cut the scallops off, go in 1 inch and score directly down that note in a straight line.

Step 3:

Now at the scored lines, tape the two Carousel notes together, like in the image.

Step 4:

Take a piece of cardstock that is 4 inches wide (10.2 cm’s) and 8.5 inches long (21.5cms.’s). You will need to score it, in one inch along the bottom. Then across you will start with a 1 inch, then 3inches, then one inch, and another 3 inches, and you should end up with roughly half an inch at the end.

Step 5:

Cut the cardstock up along that bottom strip at each score line, and at the end cut the ½ inch corner completely off.

Step 6:

Fold it all together to make this box.

Step 7:

Attach the base of the box, to the centre of the two Carousel notes.

Step 8:

On either side of the carousel notes, punch large holes with your Crop-a-dile, and add a jumbo antique brass brad.

Step 9:

Add tape to the top side of the box, ready to adhere to the Carousel notes.

Step 10:

Once you have closed your Carousel notes together, I have stamped the background, and added two different sized strips across the notes.

Step 11:

Add ribbon knotted on the inside so that you have handles.

Step 12:

Decorate the front. I have used the In the stars stamp set, and the large and small star punches.

Different sample:

Here I have used the Soft sky Carousel notes, with Bayou ribbon and stripes, and the Embrace life stamp set, and Ginger blossoms DS paper.

S

So there you have this weeks MIM. I know i have made something similar to this recently with those triangle boxes, but I still think these are darn cute with teh scalloped edges. These would make the cutest lolly bags for a little girls birthday party! I hope you like them too

I look forward to sharing more with you this week, so stay tuned!

Hi again,

Okay so I was hoping to get this up yesterday….I am starting to sound like a stuck record! But yet again things went a little hay wire, and I didn’t manage to. I have had a super huge week, with one day to go before school is out for the year. I have had classes, a workshop, Mother in laws birthday, swimming lessons, teachers gifts to make, school excursions, Christmas end of year concerts…….you can just picture it can’t you. But I guess you are all the same as well at the moment!

Actually I am completely and utterly exhausted! I was driving to the other side of the city this morning to take Tiarne to her Paediatric dentist and I had to pull over to get a drink because I was falling asleep at the wheel! It is really frightening to do that! So i plan on getting an early night tonight, after I have finished all the teachers Thank you gift tonight for the last day of School tommorrow. 

I really can’t believe how fast it has gone, this year that is. And again I can’t believe that Tiarne will be going into year 4! amazing….. I am so looking forward to the school holidays, and taking life a little slower…… I just have to get through the next 10 days or so, as we have commitments every night between now and the 21st of Dec! Craziness I tell ya.

So I thought I would just tell you a little bit about the Stamp camp last weekend. What a fab weekend that was! It started a bit rough with me running late, losing my mobile so I couldn’t call Monnie moo to let her know I was late, stressing all the way there, and then have a nasty sore throat, I found it hard to chill out and get into it. 

On Friday night we made 20 Make and Takes! That was a pretty good effort for the first night! We all designed a card, and had enough for everyone to make it. I would show you mine, but I want to use it for something else…..A little suprise, and so don’t want to give it away on here!

Saturday morning I got up and put on my brand new runners, to go for a big walk. It was great investigating the place, and then getting to catch up with Vicki too.

Then Saturday we had some wonderful classes! First we did this amazing Mini scrapbook album using the Stampin’Up’s Scrapbooking kits. I totally love what I made. I haven’t quite finished it, as I have to decorate the front, and add the photos, but here is a couple of images so you can see what I am talking about.

One of the pages open. You get 12 pages in this mini album.

A side view. I love how it is all in the same colours. I have ordered a couple of the scrapbooking kits and I hope to make these with the kids over the school holidays….I will keep you posted on how that goes

Thanks to Odette who showed us how to make these! She did a fab job teaching us all,……very enjoyable!

If you are interested in making one yourself, let me know as I think this would make a fun and productive class!

Then we did a paper punching class by Pat Carr, who is amazing at this stuff! We made a dog, Lion, and amermaid! I am not really into punch craft, but I did really enjoy it, and will probably give it another go one day.

After Pat, Linda showed us the Polished stone technique. I have never done this technique before so it was great to give it a go, and get your hands all dirty! And check out this gorgeous card Linda designed and we all got to make:

Don’t you just love the look of that background! Thanks Linda, I really enjoyed that, and will definitely give it another go!

Then last of all we had a class from Sue Joyce, who is a beautiful stamper. Sue showed us two 3-d cards you can make. one of them was one of those pop-up card stands, but i am sad to say that mine got a little crushed in transit. Then the other one was these tri-fold stand cards which are amazing! I think I will be making these again for sure!

Groovy hey! I think I will be making these with a Christmas feel, as place cards for the Christmas lunch table this year.

Thanks to all the lovely ladies who put those classes together!!! I have to say it was sooooo wonderful to be the class participant rather than the teacher for a change. I found it really refreshing!

After that we all had a photo outside on the lawn, and here is the group that came along. I am sure you can spot me…..I am the one on the right hand side. Monnie Moo is at the back 4th one in from the left.

For the weekend, Ngaire ran a card competition which was fun. There were lots of beautiful entries!!! This is the card that I entered:

Here I have used the Big old ugly flower, as Karen so loves to call it. I have used Close to Cocoa, Soft sky, and pretty in pink, which I think is such a pretty combo of colours. I din’t win, but it is understandable when you see the winning card by Sue Joyce!!!

Overall it was a fabulous weekend, to share our talents with each other, and have a fabulous time laughing with each other and thanks to Ngaire who put it all together for us! I can’t wait for the next one :)