Good Morning and welcome to another Festive Friday Challenge!

Now with all the rushing I had to do in December to be ready for Christmas I am working on the theory that its never to early to start planning for Christmas!  So when Nicole asked me to join her Festive Friday Design Team I just jumped at the chance cos I really do need all the help I can get!

So for this week’s challenge I created my Christmas Planner – it was also a great way to use up some of the leftover ‘Letters to Santa’ Designer Series Paper pack!

Christmas Planner

Santa fits rather nicely on the front dont you think?  I even used the ‘naughty or nice’ image on my belly band that holds it all together to keep the image on the right spot when its all closed up.

So lets open up the planner ….

I’ve slid the belly band off and opened the front to reveal out little ‘petite pocket’ to house all our receipts we need for all the gifts for Christmas – this way you’ll know exactly where to find the receipt when those board shorts dont fit the nephew or that cardy just is not Granny’s colour!

Here we have the planner completely open. I also used the Letters to Santa Accents to decorate my pockets and pop the labels on.  I’ve got little lists in each pocket for Gift Ideas, Christmas Card List, and a Gift List.  Its a good idea to start your Christmas Card list early so you know how many you’ll need to send out at Christmas and then we can do a few each month so we arent in a tizzy 2 weeks before Christmas cos you dont have enough cards!  A little like me last December!!

I do hope you like my little planner and if you’d like to purchase the tutorial then please click on the paypal link below and the file will be sent to you.

Be sure to pop over to Nicole’s blog to check out what the other girls have created for this week’s challenge and to play along!

I did my first workshop for 2012 the other week and it was good to get back into the swing of creating and sharing what I love!

As these ladies were a mixed bunch I thought I’d show how versatile our stamps are and have had the Easy Events stamp set since the pre-order back in August but hadnt actually inked it up so thought this was the perfect opportunity!

Easy Events is a great set with 8 sweet little stamps and all with different greetings so you would have something for any occasion your celebrating!

I made a little set of 8 little gift cards and here is the first four ….

Cute hey?  Wish I’d thought to use the little Christmas one at Christmas!!

Here is the other four …

Cuter still!!

I love that tree Stamp!

This set makes for a great quick and easy card and as I said before – for any occasion.  Now it comes in Clear Mount or Wood and I’ll share a tip with you that I do for these types of sets.  As you have an image and words on each stamp I tend to slice the words off the bottom of the stamp. If I had wood mount I’ll mount the words separately on the side of the block.  This way I can use the image by itself or I can always use my stamp-a-majig to place the words under the image as they should be.  It also gives me the opportunity to mix n match the greetings with the images!  So for example I could use the two birds with the ‘sending you love’ sentiment – now that would make a sweet Valentine card!

I have more projects using this set which you’ll be seeing over the next few days so stay tuned!!

If you would like to see how very versatile this little set is then please contact me today to book in your workshop – dont forget Sale•a•bration starts on 24th January so everyone gets to earn free stamps & accessories!

Good Morning!!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed your time with family and friends.  There is always such a huge build up to Christmas and its all over so quickly sometimes it can be a bit of a let down but this year I totally enjoyed it – well except for a few teary times when I thought of Dad and his first Christmas without mum but after I spoke to him on Christmas day he said he’d had a really nice day with my sister’s husbands family – they included him in their celebrations which is so nice and such a relief.

This was the first year I didnt buy my own presents. I gave a list to the girls and hubby and said ‘go shop’!! Well needless to say they did good and I think I should have done that years ago and now they’ve done it once they can do it again!

My Christmas eve was spent getting the food I needed to be as fresh as possible like fruit and bread rolls and croissants, then it was onto the gift packaging – and yes I have to make my own whenever I can – not really sure why as you can get such lovely bags and boxes these days but as I explained to hubby – I feel guilty if I dont! Silly isnt it??

There are always some we buy gift cards for so this is this year’s gift card pockets …

These little Santa pockets were so so easy to create … just some red and white cardstock and the tasteful trims die. Then you just add some black ribbon and a belt buckle!  Now the easiest way to make a belt buckle is to grab a can of Coke or Fanta or your favourite soft drink and once consumed remove the ring pull from it and thread your ribbon through that and wallah … instant buckle!

Now dont take that pull tab off before you finish drinking from the can or you’ll cut your upper lip and we dont want that! I suppose you could pour your drink into a glass but only creates more washing up and we cant have that!

Here’s the pocket revealing the gift card …

Each year I bundle up some cards that I make during the year to give to the families on Christmas Day and these are the gift boxes I made this year ….

Its a simple design that I got from Splitcoast Stampers but since their paper size is different to ours it means our cards are bigger so after a few adjustments and making the change to centimetres the gift boxes were then assembled with little fuss and quite easy to do. Now you dont just have to put cards in them – you could put bags of biscuits, lollies, coffee beans or bottles of marinades or candles or anything. I’ve used the lovely Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper with some Cherry Cobbler Cardstock and some Vanilla Satin Ribbon for the bow.

Here’s one of the bags up close …

There’s six cards and envies in each box and I try to choose a selection of cards to suite each person. So one family has younger kids so I try to pop in some birthday cards for young kids and to the newly weds I put in a baby card or two but for grandma its mainly birthday, get well and thinking of you.

Now to buy that many cards commercially they’d be paying at least $30 if not more so my work during the year pays off and I dont have to spend time and money in the shops buying something I’m not sure if they would use or not.

Now in saying that in previous years I hadnt had much feedback other than the ‘thank you’ so I was asking hubby if he thought I should keep giving them to which he said yes you make great cards. Now I dont know if he was just saying that to make me happy but on Christmas Day everyone commented on how lovely the cards were – even a couple of the hubby’s mentioned it to me how much work I must put in them each year!!  So that tends to say it all and I thank God for that confirmation!

Stay tuned to my blog or Stampin Up! site for details of special classes coming up in January – we’ll be doing some Valentines Gifts and Packaging as well as a few Back to School ideas.

Dont forget Sale•a•bration starts on 24th January where you can earn free stamps, papers and accessories just by buying Stampin ‘ Up! products or hosting a workshop or joining my team.  So if you’d like more details about Sale•a•bration ior joining my team please feel free to ring or email me anytime at all!  Contact me to get your free Sale•A•Bration Catalogue today!

Good Morning and Happy Christmas Eve to you!!  I do hope you’ve managed to get everything done and dont have to race around madly today and can put your feet up a bit and take it easy.

Here is this week’s sketch for the Utah Divas International Sketch Challenge …

Divas Sketch Challenge 168

Now the twist with this week’s sketch is that we had to use the sketch on a shaped card – so it couldnt be on a regular rectangle or square card.  Bit sneaky but then I got to thinking and remembered my telescoping cards I made back in September and gave it a Christmas theme!

How cute is this guy??

I’ve rotated the sketch so the vertical lines become horizontal and become Frosty’s arms.  I just love making these Telescoping cards!!

Here’s the card opened …

I love this guy and I love giving my circle scissor a run too – makes the best circles and for any size you want!  You can grab the glass mat for the circle scissor for just $26.57 as part of the December Frenzy!  Thats a whoppin 30% off!

Now dont forget to pop over to the Utah Divas International Blog to see the gorgeous cards the other Divas have created.

A couple of month’s ago my gorgeous friend Melissa Garland asked me to help her with a sample for her Presentation at Stampin’ Up! Regionals and she asked for this Side Swing Card.

So I got to thinking and here is the card I came up with …

this is a sweet little card and uses a single piece of A5 for the card base – its just the score lines that need to be mastered!  I love the flowers in this stamp set and the paper I’ve used comes from the Cheerful Treat Designer Series Paper pack which is available as a Hostess gift.

I made another of these for my recent Latte Project Class with a Christmas theme …

This one uses the Letters to Santa Designer Series paper and the Merry & Type stampset and for the inside I’ve inserted  a little pocket for popping in a gift card.

You can download the tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers here or contact me to book a workshop and I’ll show you how to make one of these to take home.

Dont forget to check out the December Frenzy – just click the banner above!

Thanks for stoppin by

As you know Sunday I decided I should really sit down and make me some cards and so I went to my drawer to find a set I hadnt used much for Christmas and Holiday Lineup seemed to be jumping and saying “pick me” … “oh oh .. pick me”.  So I did!!

I wanted a design that was fairly quick and easy as I needed to make a few.  I came up with a design I liked and then thought it was missing something and sat back and looked at it and thought … hmm it needs an embellishment of some sort.  I added a bow and wallah .. this is what I came up with….

Now for a closer view …

The Carolers

Rudolph and Friends

Frosty & Friends

Recipe
Stamps: Holiday Lineup, Contempo Christmas, Snow Swirled
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Basic Grey, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Poppy Parade, Soft Suede
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Die, Stampin sponges, Aqua Painter, Glimmer Brads, Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad, Antique Brads, Mini Glue dots.

Dont forget I have Free shipping from now till the end of December so if you’d like to order the supplies to make this card or anything else I’m happy to have it shipped direct to your door absolutely free of shipping charges – thats a saving of 5%!!

Thanks for stoppin by

Good Afternoon!!  Well the sun is out and the girls are playing nicely together so I’m enjoying this moment while it lasts!!

As I was making cards for me to send out I realised I had a card that I havent shared with you yet. Which is pretty sad considering its a card I started doing at my Christmas Stamp A Stacks last year! Its a wonderful quick and easy card and one I cased from the very lovely Jacque Pedersen in New Zealand.

Its simply a matter of spongeing and layering pieces of Whisper White cards to create the door then stamp & cut out the wreath from Welcome Christmas and attach a Merry Tag and a little ribbon. Oh and dont forget to add a brad for the door handle or no one will be coming inside!!  Can it get much easier than that??

Now when I was redoing the card the other day I thought the green wreath doesnt really come out on the green cardstock so I thought I’d ink up the wreath in Old Olive and then grab my Cherry Cobbler marker to do the berries and pop it on some Whisper White ……

I think it stands out a little more?

Now not all wreaths have little knotted bows like mine but have a great big bow on the wreath – a bit like this ….

Yes!! I think I like this one the best – which one do you like??

Dont forget the December Frenzy is still happening so if you have any money left you might like to take a look and grab a bargain as some things are up to 50% off!!

Now as my Christmas Gift to you I am offering free postage on all orders from now until 31st December, 2011.  So click the banner above and check out the sale and see what you ‘need’ and email or ring me to place your order.

Friday was the last day of school here in Sydney for 2011 and that means Teacher’s Gifts!

I wanted to do something a little more than just a box of chocolates so I made some post-it note holders and Caitie made some Whoopie Pies to pop in with the chocolates.

Here’s all the Post-It note holders I made using the Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper Pack which will be part of the freebies for next year’s Sale•a•bration!

Actually the one of the bottom right uses paper from the Timeless Portrait Designer Series Paper pack.  I’ve popped in some Stampin’ Up! pens I picked up at Memento Mall at the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Melbourne.

Here’s a pic of a single Post It Note Holder ..

How nice is this paper?? I’m sorry to say that you wont be able to buy it … but I’m very happy to say that you can earn it for FREE during Sale•a•bration! There is also a gorgeous stamp set that matches the design on this paper – now you’re getting excited arent you??

Here’s the inside of the holder …

Comes complete with 2012 calendar!

The teachers were all wrapped with their gifts and here’s to 2012 and also means both girls will be in the same school with Emily starting High School – now just where did my babies go??

If you would like more information about Sale•a•bration! or to book a workshop in during the Sale•a•bration! period which goes from 24th January to 31st March 2012 then please contact me today to arrange your copy of the Sale•a•bration! Catalogue or book your date.

Here’s another of the cards that I found from my Christmas in July that I hadn’t shared with you.

Eggplant Bauble

This is another very queasy card and I think I’ll be making a few of these today and tomorrow as I’ve found I don’t have quite enough cards to send out.  This card is great and you can do quite a few and in different colours too!

Here is another the same but done in Marina Mist …

Marina Bauble

The greeting comes from my much beloved Many Merry Messages set – this stamp has been used so much since I’ve bought it the wording has rubbed off the label!

The bauble comes from the lovely Tree Trimmings set and you could use any of the bauble’s in this set for this card – I just love the design on this bauble.

Good Afternoon and welcome to another Utah Divas Sketch Challenge.

This is this week’s sketch …

Sketch challenge 167

Now seeing this sketch you’re thinking Christmas and Baubles arent you??

Well I went a little different and here is my card …

I have some scraps of the Letters from Santa DSP so decided to use them on this card.

This is also another of those ‘queasy’ cards and I’ve also used scraps to do the ‘bows’ on the presents – I simply punched the triple flower punch and cut the flower in half to create the ribbons and added a rhinestone jewel for a little bling!

I have to make some Christmas cards as I dont have the number I want to send out so here’s the same card but with a red polka dot ribbon …

Hope you like my ‘gift card’ and be sure to pop over to the Utah Divas International blog to see what the other girls have created.