HolidayOrnament Framelits

I love, love, love this framelit collection from Stampin' Up. It has a matching stamp set too. If you have time have a look at some of the amazing paper ornaments people have made with this combo on the Splitcoast Stampers website.

Unfortunately it is no longer available from SU but ebay may be useful!.

This first card is very non-traditional! The green ornament is embossed with a polka dot design and the orange insert has been coloured with Wink of Stella clear glitter pen (another favourite!) - it looks really shimmery in real life. The purple ornament has been embossed with Swiss Dots and the pink insert has been Wink of Stella treated too. The 'Merry" is a Sizzix alpha die 'Fruit Smoothie'. DSP - Crate Paper 'Snow Day'. Cardstock - Stampin' Up: pumpkin pie, melon mambo, old olive, rich razzleberry.

This one is more traditional. Same dies. DSP - Kaisercraft. Champagne Glimmer paper from SU. Very Vanilla cardstock base from Stampin' Up (SU)

I call this one my regal luxe version! Same dies. Circle and star punches from SU. Gold cardstock from stash. DSP - Kaisercraft. Cardstock - Stampin' Up: rich razzleberry, elegant eggplant. Champagne Glimmer paper from SU.

On a Personal Note -

Well I haven't managed to photograph any of the cards I have made in the last fortnight because it has either been blisteringly hot or pouring with rain! Australia - definitely a land of extremes! Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and mild, so here's hoping!

We had a nice lamb roast for Australia day followed by tiramisu gelato - a nod to our traditional roots and our migrant future. Tonight I am turning the lamb leftovers into greek souvlaki. My children have grown up in a much more interesting (and tasty!) world thanks to all the migrants that have come to our shores. King St is a virtual trip around the globe with all the different cuisines.

Very different to my childhood where the only migrants in our town were the Greek family who ran the local milk bar - but not a single greek item on the menu! In the next town over there was a Chinese restaurant that had westernised versions of Chinese food (as I later found out) and an Aussie menu for those too chicken to actually eat chinese food!


Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Jingle All the Way!

With Alphabet stamps you can make your own sentiments. Using a SU alphabet set I spelled out 'jingle' and oriented it two ways. The bells are a Memory box die. They have a little loop so you can thread them onto cord/twine.

The first card is completed with some scoring and a Spellbinders edging die.

This card is finished off with some bells and blue tiny twine. I get my tiny twine from a company called Craft Queen. It's not like bakers twine - it's slimmer but coarser and more like string. It comes in lots of lovely colours.

The cardstock in both cards comes from SU. The first card's DSP is from 'Elf Magic' from Bo Bunny and the second card uses an Authentique pattern. The ink colour is real red from SU.,


On a Personal Note -

After a couple of cooler days we were back to the warmer weather. At least we weren't as warm as parts of Western Australia - mid 40's! (celcius)
Kids out for past couple of nights so have indulged in easy meals (scrambled eggs anyone?).
It's a long weekend this coming weekend to celebrate Australia day. Not doing anything too special though as my son is working and my daughter is off to her boyfriend's home. Think I will use the quiet time for some serious crafting. We will celebrate with a bbq on Monday night. Might even rustle up a pavlova! Yum!

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Baubles (bangles and beads)

Well, at least some baubles!!

I love fussy cutting. I find it quite relaxing. The following cards have fussy cut baubles from a 12 x 12 sheet of Kaisercraft specialty paper. The oval doily is MFT and the others are Couture Creations.
The cardstock and DSP are from SU. The snowflake on the last two is a Martha Stewart punch.

On a Personal Note:

Lovely day today and a super scrumptious meal cooked by my daughter.  She made slow cooker teriyaki chicken. To follow we had  fresh strawberry and vanilla galettes. Lovely meal. A night off from the kitchen - who could argue!

Coffee with a dear friend tomorrow then home to work on the pantry. Task tomorrow is to create a master list and discard out of date stuff. At first glance I know there are some Sustagen tins to go and a very old bottle of black Sambucca. Wonder if it is still any good? Will I be brave enough to test it out? Mmmm.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Non-Traditional Colours

Sometimes I like to experiment with non-traditional colours for Christmas cards. This one uses pale blue, lilac and pale pink. The cardstock and paper are all from SU and so is the jewelled brad. The die is a Spellbinders 'Create a flake' and it's been decorated with Kindyglitz 'crystalina'. I think it still looks like Christmas, but gets away from the usual red and green.

Craft wise I have been very busy creating 'male' cards for an order. I have also been busy doing Christmas cards as I have set myself a challenge of a year of Christmas cards showcased on my Facebook page. If it's sunny tomorrow (but not blisteringly hot) I plan to photograph the male cards and will feature some of them here.

On a Personal Note -

Today the weather was pleasant - unlike the weekend! I got lots of things done, so tonight I am feeling quite accomplished. This week the decluttering project is the pantry and fridge. My daughter tackled the fridge and after some consultation we culled the jars from 22 to 12. My daughter also took the opportunity to give the fridge it's monthly wipe out - hero to her!! I plan to tackle the pantry on Thursday.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Colouring

I love this stamp (ages old one from PSX) because depending on how you colour it - it looks different. I have tried it embossed and hand - coloured, Stamped with memento ink and watercoloured, clear embossed and chalked and, as I have here - colouring direct to stamp with markers. When doing this always start with the lightest colour first.

It also makes a great 3D ornament when stamped multiple times, fussy cut, folded in half and glued.

When I do this I don't stamp the bow or the bottom finial.

I haven't tried the Copic/alcohol markers yet but when I do this will be one of the first stamps I will experiment with!!

The cardstock and markers are SU, the paper Bo Bunny 'Elf Magic'. Zig zag trim is a Spellbinders die.

On a Personal Note -

Cooler the last couple of days, also raining on and off so no gardening. Had the night off from kitchen duties with my son cooking a nice dinner of garlic and thyme infused lamb chops with mixed vegetables. Yummy. The children cook one night each a week now so I am enjoying the break from constant kitchen duties. I love cooking but sometimes the daily grind of coming up with a meal 365 days takes the joy out of it!!

Happy Crafting!

Cheers

Susie

To Mat, or not to Mat, that is the question!

A mat can make a big difference to the overall depth of the card and can provide a 'bridge' between the card base and the patterned paper or image. But... there is such a thing as too many layers. I have been guilty of a few 'frankenstein' cards in my time that just kept growing..and growing as I tried to 'fix' them. Anyways - here are two practically identical cards except one has a mat and the other doesn't.


Without -

With -

I like them both. As I have said before, the width of your mat can also influence the overall effect so experiment away! The die is MFT Dienamics Jumbo Snowflake. The paper and cardstock are SU.


On a Personal Note -

The rains have come to us. The weather is cooler but the humidity is way up - can't win them all!
Schnitzel doesn't like the rain (or the Beach or Bath time). He is a bit of a waterphobe. Panther makes short outside forays when the rain stops for a bit but as soon as it starts again he is back inside as quick as an arrow. His favourite spot at the moment is my son's bedroom window sill - he can still survey his domain but stay dry!

I am currently doing my annual inventory of my craft supplies - stops me from doubling up but is also inspiring as I go through my stash and find old favourites, and am reminded anew of newer purchases from the previous 12 months. It is also an opportunity to take a good hard look at things and cull those that I don't use or those scraps that I realistically will not use. My daughter's workplace will benefit!!

The 52 week challenge continues in the kitchen - linen tomorrow then the cupboards and pantry over the rest of the week. I am finding it quite liberating to 'let go' of things that I have been holding onto because it didn't occur to me that I didn't have to keep it just because it came into the house.

I will never be a minimalist but simpler is growing on me!

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Bon Bons 2014

Every year I make the Bon Bons for the Christmas table. This year's theme was red and white. I found this fabulous foil wrapping paper in my local newsagent. I edged it with white copy paper cut with a Spellbinders die that looked like eyelet lace. I covered some copy paper with glitter glue and when it was dry I cut the curly floursh (MFT) behind the flowers. Then, also out of copy paper, I cut a selection of MFT rolled flowers that I glued to a scallop oval plaque. Each flower had a pearl in it's centre. Red tiny twine finished it all off.

Each Bon Bon contained a trinket, a snap, a joke and a piece of trivia. The kids take great delight in choosing the corniest, most groan-worthy jokes, imaginable (thank you Google!). The trinkets are usually things like novelty erasers, mini highlighters, mini yo-yos etc. Whatever I have managed to find in the previous year!

The cellophane parcels are individual Christmas cakes in red foil Texas muffin tins. I die cut some Tim Holtz Holly Branch leaves, stamped them with texture stamps, sponged the edges and glued them to a scalloped circle, The berries are three different sizes of red buttons. Green twine finished it all off.

A Card -

This little fellow was fussy cut from MME "Gnome sweet Gnome". He just looked like he was cheering so this Paper Smooches "Christmas Words" fitted him perfectly.


On a Personal Note -

Still very hot. A storm is brewing as I write and there are flood-causing rains being experienced in areas that only a few days ago were burning. Also the centre of Oz is getting lots of rain. That means lots of beautiful flowers in a month or so. The desert really springs to life after rain.

I was lucky enough to witness this 20 odd years ago on a trip to the Red Centre as it is known. Uluru was surrounded by lush growth and there were pools of water at it's base. I walked all the way round it but didn't climb. It is a holy site for the local people and they request that you don't.  If you really want to you can but I chose not to.  It is certainly an amazing structure/monolith. Everything - it and the surrounds - are this amazingly bright orangey red.

Off to have coffee with a very dear friend tomorrow then home to rearranging the Pantry. The truth will come out about multiple tins etc!! Just on initial recon, I know I have enough lime juice to have a really good cocktail session and not run out! Mmmm - that's an idea....


Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Love You to the Moon...

This was one of my daughter's favourite books as a child (secretly one of mine too!). We have passed it on to the next generation by giving a copy to my Grand-niece. My daughter still has her nut brown hare soft toy (which she insisted on calling 'rabbity').

For her birthday in November I gave her a medallion, which was inscribed with 'I love you to the moon and back', so I had to make a matching card. The little stars are the centre bits left over from die-cutting Spellbinders snowflakes. (I can't bear to throw away perfectly good paper pieces!!) Luckily now my daughter works with little children so I can donate all the bits that I don't use to her!!

The sentiment is hand written and the images are punches or leftovers from die-cutting. Enjoy..

Colours used - Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Silver Glimmer, Night of Navy.

On a personal note:
Clearing out the cutlery drawer (good - no mysteries) and the utensil drawers. Discovered 3 can openers, 1 x pastry/batter scraper (never used!) and another stabby looking thing I have no idea what it is used for. All off to charity at the end of the week.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Christmas Past

Today I have some lovely photos taken by my daughter of our Christmas decorations this Christmas just passed. She is the family photographer and, I think, has a knack for it. First up is the dresser with our Snowman lights. I like to collect different styles of lights. We also have Angels and Santas.

This is our tree (intruded upon by my Craft desk - oops!)

These Santas came as unpainted blanks. I got them years ago and would have dearly loved to get some more but the company went out of business. I guess I will have to do some internet sleuthing! The cute jingle bell tree came from the local supermarket of all places!

A closeup of the tree.

The coffee table - the tree there also came from the supermarket. The Stockings on the sideboard are for Panther and Schnitzel, They always get a treat Christmas morning.

All ready to open presents - just need the champagne! The cute little origami cubes were made by my daughter. She 'gets' origami - I end up with crumpled paper!! - all thumbs.

My vintage ornaments and my daughter's vase of paper cranes.

So that was our house at Christmas. It's all packed away now for another year.

A card -

Kaisercraft 'Silly Season' paper and a Paper Smooches 'Christmas Words' greeting.


Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Repetition can be a good thing!

You don't always need a big stamp to fill a card front. If you have a small image you wish to use that's when repetition becomes your friend.

I used scraps for the stamped image and fussy cut it. I laid them out in the pattern I wanted and then created a 'frame' by scoring across the card front a couple of times. (For even more dimension you could pop the images.)

So give repetition a go!

On a personal note:

Day 5 of the 52 week challenge! This week it's kitchen counter tops and table - 15 minutes a day. I have a small kitchen so it is usually quite tidy but this challenge has made me focus on ways to make it work better. The other thing is - the cabinets are painted a hideous yellow. I have lived with them for seven years (rental property) but I have decided that this is the year of a re-paint - nice clean white with some black and white vinyl tiles replacing the current apricot ones on the floor. (yes - sunshine yellow cupboards, oxblood benchtops and bottle green splashback tiles with apricot vinyl floor tiles)

Wish me luck!!

Happy Crafting!

Cheers

Susie

Card in a box - Mario

I have seen so many versions of these around the internet this past year, and always wanted to give it a go. The perfect occasion arose with my son turning 21. He has been a Mario fan ever since we won a Nintendo 64 system way back when he was seven. (He still has all his old game cartridges and his sister gave him a Nintendo 64 system for his birthday - the original one died years ago!) Retro fun all round!!

There are many templates for this card type on Pinterest, The rest of the images are a mixture of diecuts and freehand cutting and paper piecing.  The stars are 'floating' on strips of acetate. The sentiment is from SU.

Anyway - give it a go. It is quite easy and a lot of fun!

My son tells me this is the Paper Mario incarnation of Mario.

On a personal note:
Even hotter today! Have started to participate in a 52 week Declutter Challenge and four days in I am having to remind myself to pace myself! It requires just as much discipline to do small steps regularly I find. I tend to go at it like a whirlwind and wear myself out and not finish because I try to do too many things at once and end up getting overwhelmed! (and discouraged). I have a couple of goals for this year and they are going to require me to work at a steady pace (weight loss anyone?!) and not like a bull at the gate.

My crafting goal is just to keep creating on a regular basis. Here's hoping!

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

CAS + diecuts = simplicity

I have found that diecuts, like Kaisercraft collectibles, can be a quick way to produce several CAS cards quickly. For these ones I used the 'Mint Twist' collection.

The sentiment is Paper Smooches 'Christmas Words'

On a personal note: Very hot today - even the dog didn't want to move from the fan!! But we had it easy compared to South Australia & Victoria - very bad fires. Luckily no lives lost so far but considerable property damage.
Tomorrow we are taking down the tree - Christmas over for another year. I love Christmas with all the little traditions we have as a family. We play carols when decorating, usually make gingerbread and decorate it for our annual party and take our turns putting up the ornaments on the Advent calendar. We also have certain foods that are only consumed in the holiday season even though they are available all year.
Our next celebration will be Mum's birthday then Australia Day.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Variations on a Theme

One thing I find satisfying is to take one stamp and try to produce more than one style/version of a card.

This little quartet uses 'Season of Joy' from SU and the same colour scheme (coloured with markers). Quite traditional, but using different techniques.

Stamped twice and used as a centre panel. The panel is edged with a Spellbinders edging die.

Mounted onto an embossed background (Tim Holtz 'Bricked') with holly die cuts (Tim Holtz 'Holly'). The leaves have been randomly stamped and the berries have a subtle shimmer. Clear rhinestones round off the picture.

Another embossed background (SU 'Petals a plenty'). The red mount has been pierced all round.

Last one - the white mount has been scored in a thick band horizontally with a smaller vertical band.


By varying the 'thickness' of the various mounts you can achieve different effects.

So... take one stamp and play away!

On a personal note - hot, hot, hot here today. Summer is really making its presence felt.

Spent an enjoyable time with the kids (young adults really!) and played Christmas present games 'Bananagrams' and 'The Logo Game'. Lots of fun.

Fireworks last night were beautiful, however it was definitely too late for Schnitzel! He slept right through them and didn't even flinch!!

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie