Morning Everyone!!

Well its a tad chilly here this morning and I have so much to do before tonight’s workshop and thought I’d start off with a Coffee and a Blog post!

A couple of weeks ago we treated ourselves to a little weekend getaway. Well Hubby’s nephew was getting married on the South Coast so we took an extra couple of days to relax in and around Ulladulla on NSW South Coast.

Now when it comes to Wedding Cards you want to make them that extra little bit special and here is the card I created for the lovely couple

I used our Shimmer White Cardstock but wanted it more ‘shimmery’ so spritzed it with a mix of our Frost White Shimmer Paint and  Rubbing Alcohol.  It worked a treat so after punching out umpteen little flowers in Whisper White, Very Vanilla and Bashful Blue I spritzed them as well.  Now if you are going to do this technique you need to make sure you allow time for the spritzed pieces to dry before assembling the card other wise you will be assembling the card the morning you leave!

I’d only recently purchased the Elegant Lines embossing folder and now wonder why it took me so long to get it – it was perfect for this card! Dont forget to check out this month’s special for the Big Shot dies that are 10% off – just in time for Christmas too!! Just click on the advert in my sidebar for all the details!

Here we are all dressed up …

Now you couldnt go down to the South Coast without going to the Beach and as hubby and I used to have a caravan down at St George’s Basin (pre kids) we knew where to stop on the way home …

Hyam's Beach

Hyam’s Beach is known for its ‘white’ sand and is reported to be one of the Whitest sand beaches in the world! The water was so clear when we were there and there were some people not too far out  – about 100 metres – snorkelling and looking at the Octopus and Stingrays that were there!

While we were at the reception at Mollymook Beach on the Saturday we actually saw a whale jumping in and out of the water … actually Caitie was the first to see it. Pretty special.

It was a lovely weekend and Kat picked the perfect day as the weather on Sunday was a bit dubious and now I’m looking forward to freeing up a weekend here and there and taking a few more ‘breaks’.

Its been great being on holidays  in Victoria creating and sharing some happy new memories with family and friends.

Before Christmas I shared with you the Christmas Swing card I made and because I loved this card so much I decided to create a non Christmas card and I’d been really wanting to use the new Happiness Shared stamp set and thought this was the perfect combination.

How sweet is this card?

It makes the perfect card for any special lady you may happen to know and this card is just so easy!

Here is the card opened ….

Recipe ….

Stamps: Happiness Shared
Paper: Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark
Accessories: White Organza Ribbon, Aqua Painter, Paper Trimmer, Bone Scorer

This card is just so easy to do and I’d love to show you just how easy it is. It is simple enough to be done at a workshop or once I get back home I’ll be scheduling a Valentine’s Class so stay tuned for that.

I fly home on Wednesday so still have a couple of ‘Happy Memories’ to create with my Sister and parents and tomorrow I meet up with the lovely Kerri Hunter for lunch – cant wait!

cos the ESAD 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue Blog Hop is here!

I do hope you have got yourself a cuppa and a biscuit – maybe even a chocolate one as there are 25 lovel blogs as part of this New Catalogue tour!

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!

We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors but we share our love
for what we do with each other as Demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know how and cyberstamps and we are
always there to help and support each other when its needed.

So if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group. Now if you’re not a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and would like to be please email me for a ‘no obligaton’ information pack.

Now as I’m the first in the blog hop you just keep going until you get back to me – easy   Also, if you happen to come across a link that doesnt have their posts up then scroll down to the bottom of the last blog post you were on and there will be a list of all the blogs involved.

We have blog Candy!

This blog hop we are offering blog candy for those who take the time and effort to visit every blog and leave a comment on all the blogs. All you have to do to be entered into the draw is to visit each blog and leave a comment on each one. Once you’ve done this email me and let me know you’ve fulfilled the requirment and  advised your name, email and location and I will enter you into the draw! How easy is that??

Now onto my project ….

One of the great new sets in the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue is called Artistic Etchings and I was lucky enough to be able to pre-order this set – one of the benefits of being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator is being able to pre-order stamps before the catalogues are released to the general public.

Now I wanted to make something more than just a few cards and I’ve mentioned before that I love using the Stampin’ Up! notecards.  So I designed a ‘bag’ that would fit the notecards inside.

So using the notecard size  I went about designing the little briefcase and I just love how it turned out. I deliberated for quite some time on how to get the briefcase to get the texture of a real bag and decided that it would be easier to just use my stamp pad to create the lines/scratches on it. Then I just stamped some of the images from Artistic Etchings on the case to mimic those luggage bags with stickers and labels on them.

The three little cards fit in the briefcase perfectly and it uses a velcro dot to close the bag.  Here are the cards …

Now as I was making the briefcase and cards I thought of making a concertina passport photo book. I then remembered that my neice and her hubby are currently living in the UK and have made a couple of trips over to Europe and in particular France so I messaged Cath and asked if I could use some of their photo’s to which she was happy to do so.

So I set to work on the Passport.  Again I made it the size of the notecards so it would fit in the briefcase – and this way I wouldnt have to make another bag!  I downloaded and printed the photo’s I wanted to use and then set about to create the concertina part. I placed the photo’s without sticking them down so I knew where to put my stamps.Once I’d stamped and sponged the pages I popped the photo’s in and tagged them and I was done.

The Paris label on the front was printed on cardstock using word and I then attached the frame from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge (which I’m glad is in the new Catalogue) and popped it on the front.  It might look involved but it really was quite easy once I’d worked out where to put what photo.

I do hope you like what I’ve made as I really did enjoy making these two little projects. It’s Cath’s birthday later this month so I’m going to send the briefcase and the passport over to her – I do hope she likes it!

Now its time to head off on your journey to the next Blog that’s part of the hop being the lovely Keryn Campbell from New Zealand (see I knew you’d need a passport!!)

Here’s a list of all the ladies participating in the blog hop just in case one of the links in the posts dont work …

Hello everyone!!

I do hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year – I had a wonderful time visiting my parents and sister over Christmas and New Year and it was great for my parents to have all their children together there which hasnt happened in a very long time – not since my little sister was married and thats some 20 years ago! It was a shame that not all the grandkids could be there but most of them were which was great.

Here’s some family photo’s to share ….

This is my lovely family.

Dont you just love Caitlyn’s smile?? It had nothing to do with me tickling her back

Emily always has the loveliest smile although she doesnt like having her photo taken – I’m glad she didnt cover her face with her hands in the family shots.

Here’s one of my favourites of my sister Jo and myself.

If you are on as one of my facebook friends you’ll recognise this one as my profile picture – funny thing is that it’s Jo’s facebook profile picture too!

Here’s a picture of my parents and their kids.

We are pretty well spread out ….

- Jenny (in the red on the left) lives in Sydney’s west

- David (the one with the shiny head) lives in Brisbane in the Redlands area (hope I got that right and I’m sure he’ll tell me if I havent!)

- Leonie (yup dats me ) in Sydney’s South West – Macarthur area as “South West” of Sydney can be anywhere from Newtown to Bowral!

Jo (on the far right) lives in Cobden next to Mum & Dad and teaches in Warrnambool

Now here’s the whole clan (minus a few Queenslanders)

Thanks for stoppin by

We left home Thursday morning for our holidays. We left at 9am and arrived at Echuca at 7pm and it really did feel at times that we’d never get to our destination!

We drove to Echuca which is on the NSW/Victorian border and it would have been nice to spend a little more time there learning about the history of the town. The cabin we booked was lovely with a decent bed which made for a good night’s sleep which is always a good thing when your travelling! It was great to sit and relax with my sister Jo, her hubby and a couple that are their friends.

Friday morning we breakfasted at McDonalds (as you do when travelling) and as I’d noticed some rather old churches as we drove in that was our first ‘to-do’ after breakfast – to get some photo’s of some old churches for a scrapbook I’ve wanted to make for a while now.

We then headed to the Old Port of Echuca where there was a thriving business up and down the river in the 1800′s. They still run some of the paddle steamers from that era and no doubt have spent a small fortune in their maintenance. Some of you may remember a mini series on TV called “All the Rivers Run” – it had John Waters and Sigrid Thornton in it to name a couple – well one of the steamers they had in that show was the “Emmy Lou” and is driven by a completely restored 1906 steam engine, and built to the highest world classification standards. She was built locally during 1980-82 in the style of the 19th century paddleboats, and is 30 metres long and 10 metres wide, steel hulled and timber decked.

The port is lovely and have set it so its like stepping back into the 1800′s with the sand roads and cobblestone footpaths. You can taste the local wine and fudge as well! You can stroll through and see how they did wood turning and the original tools the blacksmith used and all his gorgeous items for sale.

There is the stagecoach you can take for a ride through the town and these Clydesdale horses are just stunning animals and so well groomed.

They didnt budge when Caitie wanted to give them a pat and the handler was great and let her pat them but just asked her to stand beside them for their safety and hers!

Down at the old port they have these trees with the signs for the level particular floods got to. Its hard to imagine the water rising so high but it did.

These days the water is controlled from the Snow Mountains therefore they regulate the amount of water over flowing to the surrounding areas.

This photo shows you just how high the floods actually got in previous years. I got the girls to stand in front of the tree to give you an idea – have you noticed the one right up the top which happened in 1874?

We are now staying in Cobden with family till 8th October but plan to do a few ‘sight seeing’ trips while we are here.

Although I got a great picture of the Cathedral at Bendigo I need more photo’s of old churches and know there are a few in and around Warrnambool so no prizes for guessing where one of our trips will be to! Hopefully it will stop raining long enough to enjoy a couple of day trips while we are here!

I do hope the nephew is looking after my stamps and fish and they arent missing me too much!

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