Banners Away!

The trend the last while has been for using banners/flags. I am still enjoying playing around with size - width/length and colour/texture and quantity. The following cards all use them in variations on these themes. You don't have to have special tools to do this (although there are some lovely ones around!). The bare minimum is a pair of scissors, a ruler and a pencil. A paper trimmer and a square punch to make the notches is convenient if you want them all to look the same. The ultimate fancy way is to use the dies or framelit sets on the market from Stampin' Up, MFT, Sizzix ect. All these were created with a paper trimmer and a pair of scissors with some measuring up of notches by pencil and ruler.

This first one uses different widths, patterns and lengths layered. It uses all SU products.

Another layered banners but this time thet are a little offset from each other. All SU except for the layered Spellbinders snowflake die (Create a flake #1)

One banner as the focal point. All SU except for the spotty paper.

Two banners layered but I notched the bottom one at a sharper angle to create emphasis. All SU except for the patterned paper.

Last but not least! Lots of little ones - different lengths and layered. Cardstock and ink are SU. The stamp is old (ancient) PSX and the patterned paper is from Websters Pages.

On a Personal Note -

Well the weather has finally come good (for now! They say the weather cell that caused last week's horror is reforming and may return later this week!) We had so much hail on Saturday afternoon it looked like it had snowed! But all things in perspective - we had very little inconvenience compared to Chile and Nepal.

Hope to get out into the garden tomorrow. I am sneaking this post in between medical appointments and coffee with a friend.

Wishing you well in your part of the world.

Happy crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Same Die - Different Look.

Often when I purchase a die I have a definite design/colour way in mind. To keep things fresh I like to challenge myself to come up with different colour ways or points to emphasise/highlight to make the dies more versatile. Adding or subtracting bits is also useful to change things up a bit.

This first card uses the MFT die 'Jumbo Snowflake' in a non-traditional colour. The colours used are SU perfect plum and summer starfruit. In the flesh it is quite sparkly as the patterned paper is layered on some co-ordinating glitter paper and the perfect plum snowflake and circle punch have been 'glazed' with Win of Stella 'clear'. The scallop circle punch is from SU and the whole card has been finished off with a gold rhinestone.

This card is more traditional but also 'sparkles' with foil dots, glitter paper banner and Wink of Stella on the star centre. The 'joy' is a partial diecut from Paper Smoooches - 'Christmas words'. Just because the die says 'joyful greetings' doesn't mean you have to use the whole phrase!

The next 3 cards use the same die but in different colour ways. It is MFT 'Winter Wreath'

This first one is quite masculine with colours of SU very vanilla, cajun craze and pear pizzazz. The patterned paper is Authentique 'Free Bird' and the rhinestones are peach coloured

Same ingredients but different colours gives another masculine/restrained card but not such a   traditional colour way. The patterned paper is the same - just re-oriented. Colours used are SU very vanilla, always artichoke and not quite navy. The rhinestones are peach.

This one is modern but traditional colours. Colours used are SU very vanilla and cherry cobbler. The patterned paper is SU 'Festival of Prints'

On a Personal Note -

Nature has been putting us through the wringer these past few weeks. One day it's hot enough to boil your eyeballs - then it's full on cold - and the last two days it's been a toss up between being blown away or drowned! Very wild.

Luckily for us we are quite protected where we are but a lot of people have been very badly affected. The SES (rescue services) have been inundated with calls for assistance.

I feel fortunate that I don't have any medical appointments til Thursday (it's supposed to clear up by then!') so I can stay snuggled and craft to my hearts content. Fortunately I also have a dryer so getting laundry done and drying out the kids soaked socks etc is not a problem. Shoes - another matter!

Hope it's fine in your part of the world.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

365 Christmas update

On my Facebook page I post daily to an album titled 365 Christmas. It is a 'card a day' challenge I set myself. It is enjoyable - and nice to work on Christmas cards without feeling deadline stress!

Christmas is an occasion I really enjoy and I have made the decision to mainly focus my crafting endeavors in that direction. It has definitely reduced my anxiety levels of 'must have all the things because I have to be able to meet everyone's desires'. Now every purchase is put through the 'can I use it for Christmas' filter first.

It doesn't mean I won't buy other stamps/paper etc - but they have to be for a specific project rather than just because they are pretty or I might 'need' them one day!

Anyway - now some pictures. These are some of my recent Facebook posts and use SU cardstock but a variety of papers, dies and stamps.

SU stamp, 'Gnome, Sweet Gnome' paper

All SU. The embossed snowflakes are shimmery courtesy of 'Frosted Lace'

Tim Holtz 'Festive Greenery'

SU 'Welcome Christmas' stamp, Paper Smooches die

C.C Design 'Mistletoe' die, Cuttlebug die. The 'joy' is sparkly in real life courtesy of a Wink of Stella

 Tim Holtz 'Assembled Snowman' die

PSX stamp (very old)

On a Personal Note -

My daughter is cooking up a storm today for her friends coming over for a games night. They play a mixture of board games and video games. My son also has a group of friends that he does this with too.

When they were old enough (school age) we used to have a tv-free board game night every week. We love all sorts of games but especially word games - Scrabble, Upwords, Bananagrams, In-betweens, Make Five to name some. Pictionary is also a fav and we have been known to indulge in charades!

Strategy games like Goblet and Cathedral are classics. I have discovered this great website called Mental Floss which has fantastic board games and other Geeky stuff. Another great website for geekery is Thinkgeek.

When we were out and about when they were younger we often passed the time playing Hangman. I always carried paper and pen! And on a long haul flight an Etch-a-sketch was a lifesaver.

My daughter passed on to me her old Nintendo DS and also gave me some great games like Mahjong, Word balloon (like Hangman), Crosswords and Anagrams. She also gave me Brain Training - it's good and I definitely need it!

Have a great weekend.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie.

Easter Table

I finally uploaded the pictures of my Easter table decor to my laptop!

I went simple this year - ie simple in quantity.

There were 4 of us for lunch and I made a spare set for my grand-niece who is almost 3. Each set comprised a place mat and a basket of assorted eggs and a little packet of bunny tails (mini marshmallows). Some items I used are retired but substitutions are easily found.
(Please excuse the wrinkly tablecloth!)

The baskets were made with the Sizzix berry basket die in SU crumb cake and pretty in pink. The scallop trim for the basket comes in the die but I hole punched it as well. Before assembly I stamped the basket pieces with SU woodgrain stamp in SU soft suede ink.

Each side of the basket was decorated before assembly as well. Each side was different. I used the SU 'everybunny' stamp set which I coloured with a mixture of SU and Tombow markers. All the pieces were then fussy cut. The grass was made with MFT grassy edges die in SU certainly celery.

The bunny tails topper used SU 'everybunny' and 'bitty banners' stamps and I hand lettered the label. SU scallop circle punches in whisper white and certainly celery were finished with hand drawn certainly celery circles.

The place mat was made from an A4 sheet of SU bashful blue trimmed with a scallop edge in certainly celery. I covered the join on the reverse with another A4 sheet of bashful blue.

All the bunnies are in SU crumb cake. The bigger bunnies are an Impression Obsession die and the little bunnies are 'baby bunnies' by Memory box. The hearts are in SU pretty in pink with the larger heart an SU punch and the tiny ones an old punch of unknown provenance!

Last but not least - the super yummy carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting my daughter made for dessert.

On a Personal Note -

My son received his degree in media at a ceremony on Tuesday - the whole cap and gown and University Chancellor deal! Very, very proud of him. He is also gaining lots of internship writing experience which will serve him well in pursuing his chosen career of sports journalism. He does this on top of working full time and coaching the metropolitan region of junior AFL umpires.

My daughter continues to blossom in her work as a nanny and has finally returned to her creative pursuits of writing and drawing. She had terrible writers block and a real crisis of confidence in her abilities but things are looking up. Couldn't be a happier mum!

Our pet scrapbook venture is continuing and has resulted in much reminiscing and laughter. I have been scouring the internet for suitable embellishments etc and found some super cute washi tape and ribbons at Craft Queen. I will share some pages as we finish them.

Hope all is well in your domain.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie