14 days to Christmas

That’s right! Only two weeks left until Christmas. Where has the year gone? I am still trying to get organised enough to send out my cards, and there are still the gift purchases to arrange. I will do it this weekend [well, maybe]. In the meantime, here are a few more of my latest creations – again in the Christmas spirit.

I haven’t made a gatefold card for some time now, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do something different for Christmas. The cardstock is Certainly Celery, Real Red and Whisper White. I used Versamark ink to roll the So Swirly Jumbo Wheel over the base. The snow flakes and tree have been stamped with Certainly Celery ink, and highlighted with a Real Red marker. The snow flakes were then punched out using the ½” circle punch, and the tree was ticket cornered with the corner rounder punch. The sentiment was stamped with Real Red. [Snow flake, tree and sentiment all from Snow Swirled set.]

This next one uses the retired set, Holiday Wishes. I used Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy and Whisper White cardstock. The tree has been inked with So Saffron, Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, and Bravo Burgundy markers. I then added glitter to the stars. The eyelet border punch was used on a narrow piece of Burgundy to finish off the design.

My last offering for today is ‘cased’ from the recently retired Spring Mini Catalogue. Chocolate Chip and Whisper White cardstock are highlighted with Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue and Old Olive ornaments from the Tree Trimmings set, sentiment from Many Merry Messages, and Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon.

'Cased' from our 2009 Spring Mini Catalogue

 Have a wonderful weekend.

The Summer Mini is here

The Summer Mini Catalogue made its appearance on Tuesday. I had planned on giving you a sneak preview of some of its contents, but somehow, time got away from me, and I didn’t get to do the upload. Anyway, better late than never. Here are some samples using two of the very versatile sets in the catalogue – Hello Again and Butterfly Prints.

The first card uses Hello Again. I have made a little garden of flowers creating depth with the use of dimensionals on the middle flower and its leaves. Cardstock and ink used were Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue plus a base of Whisper White.

The second card uses Butterfly Prints, Butterfly Punch [new], Jumbo Grommets [also new], So Saffron Grosgrain ribbon, and the Scallop Oval Punch. I tried to step outside of my colour comfort zone for this one. I have used Taken with Teal, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango and So Saffron cardstock. Versamark ink has been used on the butterfly and Basic Black ink for the sentiment.

If you are interested in receiving a catalogue, please leave a comment and I will post one to you.

Have a great day.

Candles and Anniversaries

Really two topics in one. I finally got to try the candes after Tanya’s tutorial with me. My sister Helen, and I made this one using the Snow Swirled stamp set, with Glorious Green and Real Red inks. I am very pleased with the way it has turned out. I have taken a few photos around the candle and combined them into one so that you can see all sides.

The second topic – anniversaries. I was asked to make a 50th wedding anniversary card – preferably using gold. I wanted it to create an impression, so I used metallic gold cardstock with a Very Vanilla layer in a trifold angle card as my starting point. Using heat set powder and gold glitter, I stamped a heart from Polka Dot Punches on the front of the card, and another on a scrap piece. I then overlapped them using double sided adhesive. The flourish below the hearts from Finest Flourishes has also been done with the heat set powder and gold glitter. The sentiment from Cheer and Wishes was stamped in Basic Black ink straight onto the gold cardstock. On the inside, I have stamped more flourishes using Sahara Sand ink. The 50 has been done with the heat set powder and gold glitter. Again, I took a few photos and combined them to show both closed and open views of the card.

Enjoy your weekend. It looks like it will be a hot one here.

Team Meeting

Last Saturday afternoon, three wonderful ladies [Jan, Melissa and Renae] and I had a great time with our upline manager Tanya. This is what we did.

The first is called a Step Card. It is easy to make and looks very elegant. We used Baja Breeze cardstock and ink, Real Red ink, Season of Joy stamps, So Swirly Jumbo Wheel, eyelet border punch and some Baja Breeze striped grosgrain ribbon. I have now tried this technique with some other stamps. You can see them in my Christmas gallery

The next card uses the Spotlight technique – that is where you keep your image with virtually no colour, then ’spotlight’ a small section. We used Real Red cardstock and ink, Whisper White cardstock, Ski Slope DSP, Basic Black and Close to Cocoa inks, blender pen, 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1¼” circle punch, Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon. Don’t you just love Rudolph?

The last item is a decorated noodle box. This takes a simple noodle box and adds embellishments to jazz it up. You could do this for any occasion. Here we have used Real Red, Old Olive and Whisper White cardstocks, Ski Slope DSP, Best Yet stamps, scallop oval punch, wide oval punch, large oval punch, horizontal slot punch, Real Red and Old Olive grosgrain ribbons.

Tanya also showed me how to decorate candles. I can now try this out and hopefully will have some to upload later on. Thanks Tanya for all the great ideas and a wonderful afternoon.

Enjoy

Elegant Fifth Avenue Floral

Just stepping away from Christmas for a split second – well much longer really. I put this card together for one of my lovely customer’s birthday. Firstly, I stamped one of the Fifth Avenue Floral flowers on Night of Navy cardstock with Stazon Opaque Cotton White ink. The large rose has been stamped with Night of Navy ink on Whisper White cardstock and cut out leaving a thin white border and mounted with dimensionals. The sentiment from Cheers and Wishes was also stamped on Whisper White with Night of Navy ink and cut with the scallop oval punch. The wide oval punch was used to cut one Night of Navy oval and two Whisper White ovals. The scallop was then mounted on the navy oval which was mounted on the white ovals which had been overlapped slightly to produce a larger oval. The eyelet border punch was used on a strip of Night of Navy and a larger strip of Whisper White. I am very happy with the finished product – simple, yet elegant.

Until next time.