Hey everyone!

I hope you have all had a great weekend, and a good start to the week! I truly can’t believe that it is Wednesday tomorrow…..yikes the week is flying right before my eyes!

I had a lovely time going to Busselton with Renae to visit Chantelle! It is always nice to get away, and have some girl time, and that we did. Actually we did what girls love best…….SHOPPING! You can see some great photos on Chantelle’s website, of us together, and the result of our shopping adventure…….lots of bags! I got a lot of Christmas goodies all sorted, so that feels really good. Thanks to Chantelle for having us there to, and spoiling us with breakfast, and a beautiful gift too……I still have to take a photo of that, and promise to share that with you tomorrow…..I have been really spoilt again this past week, with wonderful surprises in my mail box etc….. so I can’t wait to show you those.

Okay so back to topic…..Ustamp. As you know I have been the Australian representative for Ustamp for the past year. It has been so wonderful to create tutorials, and share what I love with people all over the world, and make some wonderful new friends too. This time round we had a Christmas theme, and I wanted to share with you the projects I did for this event…….

First off, I made this Christmas gift bag. This time around I wanted to make projects that were easy to make lots of. There is nothing worse that coming up with these adorable yet intricate projects, when you have to make 20 of them….Trust me, this is something I do all the time! I think to myself it won’t take all that long, and yet last Christmas I was up till 3:30am on Christmas eve, getting all these Choc top boxes made for all my extended family! This year I am going with simple!!!

So these little gift bags are so economical, and big enough to put all sorts of goodies in. I have covered a standard brown paper handled bag with stamped cardstock and ribbon, add some tissue paper, and TA DA……you have a cute hand made gift bag!

Then the next item I designed, was for your Christmas tables. Who doesn’t like a bit of table bling, especially at Christmas? Here is a cute and easy cutlery holder using one sheet of 12 x 12 DSP.

Here I have used the Holiday Treasures Designer paper from Stampin’Up and the Season of Joy stamp stamp set for the flowers, along with some riding hood red striped ribbon. Again super simple and easy to make, just a bit of folding, and embellishments and bob’s your uncle they are done!

As I mentioned, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Dawn, and being a Design Team member for Ustamp, however it has come time for me to step down from the DT. I have other things I would like to pursue, as well as I have been enjoying taking things a little bit slower of late……but I will go into that all in another post soon! I am very happy to announce that the fabulous and most talented Kirsty Brown ( also an Inkspirations Design Team member) is going to take my place. I know she will definitely dazzle the Ustamp crew, with her amazing creations!

Till next time,

Take care! 

Hey Peeps,

Finally got the chance to get back to you all! My dear little Mali has Gastro, the poor lil’ poppett. Now we are just waiting for it to hit the rest of us….meaning me!  If there is gastro going around I get it without fail, but I am popping my pro-biotics and praying that I don’t get it!

Now onto something far more flavoursome that gastro, my exciting news that I was going to share yesterday!

I had a pleasant surprise, recently when I was asked to write another tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers, this time for their Holiday Blitz in preparations for Christmas! The catch was that I also needed to do a You Tube video of the tutorial……ummm sure that would be fine  (gives me the opportunity to work out the whole You Tube experience!)

Well let me tell you, that was QUITE the experience! Not one I would rather repeat, as I had the worst time trying to work out Photoshop Premiere Elements….that thing is written for Einstein’s!!! I wouldn’t like to call myself stubborn but boy oh boy, persistence certainly was the key to getting this project off the ground. Poor Beate had to put up with my panicked emails, and phone calls to her ( it was rather wonderful chatting to her personally though!)

But in the end perseverance won out, and I got that video uploaded and ready to watch……so you want to watch it? - I do confess to cringing everytime I hear my voice and intro on the video, but I suppose the whole purpose was to actually teach you how to make the Scrapbook Wallet I designed, and that is what I achieved in the end.

So for you out of country viewers, have a good ol laugh at this Aussie’s accent! LOL!

If you want to view the step by step photos, you can check them out at the following link:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/scrapbookwallet 

Please tell me what you think, and hey if you want to see more videos on here too! Since I now know how to do them, it might be a great way to share my tutorials

Hope you are having a great week! 

Hey gang……

Last week it was my dear friend Monnie’s 30th Birthday! What a milestone It has come around so fast, as we have been talking about it on our morning exercise jaunts all year. I had to make Mon, something that was with her favourite stamp set of course….which I only just bought because she has been teasing me with it all year!

Here is the card I made for my special friend…..

For this card I used Taylor’s Sketch challenge from the week before last. I am loving the new Corduroy brads too……as you can tell!

Then I wanted to make a little something to go with the card, and well whipped up a little box to match….

I have used the same DSP and cardstock as the card….

and look-see what is inside!

Lots of YUMMIES!!!!

By the way this wasn’t the gift I bought Monnie, just something fun to go with the Pandora neclace I bought her…… It was a fun gift to make.

We had a fabulous night celebrating too! We went out to dinner, with my hubby, Mon and HER NEW MAN! That was the most exciting bit Then we went to see a play together about the life of John Calvin, that the year 11 students from the kids school put on, and it was so unbelievably good! They all did an amazing job!

Okay so there you have a wee creation that I have actually made recently!

I will be back in a mo with some more exciting news too!

 Hi ya everyone!

Heres hoping you are having a bonza week. We have started school holidays this week, and what a relief it is not to have to drive the school run, on the downside, it is so much harder to keep the house in tip-top shape! LOL! But we have had some relaxing days, and even had a picnic on the back lawn today, in which I then proceeded to fall asleep in the sunshine~

I had the really bright idea the other day that it would be a really really good idea for me to do a Detox…… I don’t know where that bright idea sprung from, but right about now, Detox is a dirty word! I haven’t had one ounce of sugar, wheat, caffeine, chocolate, or any of those other nasties we all become addicted to for 2 days! Did I mention I haven’t had chocolate for 2 days??? What a rude shock to the system that is! But considering I am feeling oh so terrible, it means that there are obviously lots of nasty toxins making their way out of my system, so I just have to hang in there to get the good feeling back. My headache has been the headache and the head spins have been the worse……BUT I am determined to get through the 10 days!! Hey if I can survive 2 days without chocolate, I am sure I can survive longer, and it will get easier, I am sure (well lets hope so!)

I have tried oh about 6 times to sit down and stamp in the last week and come up with zilch! I am having the worst missing mojo at the moment, and oh i am starting to get really worried it isn’t going to come back!!! Believe me I have tried several creations and each of them have ended up in the bin! Certainly not something I am used to, and i am a bit panicked that it won’t come back either!!! I will have to sit and try something really simple first just to get my confidence back

But I still have something up my sleeve to show you all……

As you know i am the Design Team member for Australia on Ustamp. Ustamp is an on-line stamping class that runs every 2-3 months. The Design team all share a bunch of fabulous things they have made and you get all the tutorials for them! Anyway I haven’t shared with you some of my projects that I have made for some time, and thought you would be interested.

Okay so here is something I called the Triple treat basket…..

 This basket has an insert in the inside that has three circles cut out so that is nice holds the candles into it firmly. You could do the same and put jars of lollies into the circles as well.

Then the other thing I made was a gift basket:

Then all you have to do is add your goodies to it….

Here I have loaded it with some Stampin’Up goodies, ready to give to a friend.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing something different, and I promise I will still keep attempting to make something creative to share!!!

Have a goodie….!

 Hey peeps,

i have just sat here thinking of a title for this post. You would think it would be totally easy, but today it wasn’t. I do have a project to show….YAY! and well it has the Walk in the Park DSP on it, and well considering all that has been going on lately, i thought, about it, and came up with that title. ~ Hope it doesn’t sound too depressing!

Alas, I am well so no fretting, just flat strap at the moment. Guess what I have been doing for 3 days straight? PACKING, PACKING, and more PACKING! so that leads me to say, NO we haven’t sold the house yet, but I am on a mission to purge any item this house holds, that we do not need, fit, wear, use etc… etc…. It truly is amazing how much “STUFF” we have, that we don’t even use!!! It is terrible, and it feels sooooo good to be rid of it all. I thought it would be a good idea to start packing and putting the boxes away in the shed. That way I am de-cluttering which helps to keep the house in tip-top shape for when we have people come to view it. It also helps to keep it organized, with 4 kids and a whole lot less stuff in the house, means that there is less for them to mess up! Well that is my logic. So far each room has just about had 1/2 to 2/3rds of their contents removed. It looks great, and wow talk about space I now have! I just have the kitchen and the Store room / laundry to go. Hopefully i can get that done by the weekend.

Also we have a new member to the family for a while. We are caring for a little 8 year old Aboriginal Foster boy. He is a pure delight and has fitted into the family really well. His Foster Mum, really needed a break, and so we are his respite carers for a while ~ at least 3 weeks at this stage maybe longer. So that is keeping me more busy, making sure the homework gets done, lunches, washing etc….. All a pleasure of course

Then you come to the good old broken ankle, as well…….I seriously have to get a snap shot of this new boot I have got going on! It is really quite the fashion statement!!!! But it is helping, and I appreciate that the boot is keeping my foot in line, and hopefully another step to being back to what it was. Patience is certainly something I am learning at the moment!!! Each day it is a little better though, so that is great! I have to just be really careful that I don’t over-do it, or I will prolong the healing process…..easier said that done!

Okay so now you know what I have been up to lately, I thought I should also show you something stamped….just for a change.LOL! Last week I had my last get together with one of my Stamp Clubs. I really wanted to do a fun project for the last event. I made this cute little slider box, and two cards to go in the inside, and using the Walk in the park paper, and Great friend stamp set.

Here is the front of the box…..

You will see some marks on the cardstock of the box, and that is because at the stampbclub get together it has a colision with a stamp pad or two…LOL! ~ always the way hey. So this is the front of the box, and then on the side it has the ribbon so you can open it like this:

Here it is partially opened. You can see the two cards nicely slotted into the box.

There here is a side view of the box:

I have used Jumbo eyelets set into the box to have the handle run fed through. Easy peasy!

Don’t forget to play along with the current Colour challenge and have the opportunity to win Blog Candy of your choice!!! You have until midnight Thursday evening……I am loving what you gals have come up with so far!

Have a goodie!