August 2015 365 Christmas Cards Update

Whoa! Another month passed, another month closer to Christmas. Seemed to be making mainly tree cards this month. Here is a selection.

Stampin' Up cardstock in certainly celery and primrose petals. Quikutz 'diamonds & dots' embossing folder. Kaisercraft  'silly season' paper.

Stampin' Up cardstock in gumball green and certainly celery. Pink pearlized paint chip sample. Kaisercraft 'mint twist' collectibles.

Stampin' Up cardstock in wild wasabi and blushing bride. Patterned paper from stash. Reverse/negative diecut from Wplus9. Iridescent glitter. Small diecut leftover from a snowflake centre in pearlized paint chip.

Stampin' Up cardstock in wild wasabi, cherry cobbler, whisper white and summer summerfruit. Stampin' Up stamp set 'snow much fun' coloured with various markers. Stampin' Up 'square lattice' embossing folder. Darice 'stars' embosing folder. Sizzix 'ornaments' embossing folder. All embossing highlighted with Wink of Stella 'clear'.

Stampin' Up cardstock whisper white and real red. Stampin' Up stamp set 'contempo christmas' coloured with markers. Patterned paper from stash.

Stampin' Up cardstock in whisper white and poppy parade. Stampin' Up sentiment in ridinghood red. Kaisercraft 'mint twist' collectible diecut. Spellbinders 'edgebilities' zig zag trim. K-Kingdom 'plaid' embossing folder.

Stampin' Up cardstock in wild wasabi. DCWV gold foil cardstock. Sizzix embossing folder. Diecut from a magazine.

On a Personal Note -

Spring has sprung here and the days are lovely and balmy and there is blossom and jasmine everywhere. You cannot help but feel uplifted when it's as beautiful as this.

Had a little stay in hospital for an operation to help me get a handle on my weight problem. I managed to lose 17kg on the pre-operative phase so hopefully there are many more lost kilos to come. I have a huge amount of weight to lose just to get into a healthy range. This quest is not for vanity or attainment of some beauty ideal. Rather it is for health. I had reached a stage where it was really starting to have an adverse effect on my health and well-being: both physically and emotionally.

Once I have recovered I am going back to my yoga practice. At the moment I am as flexible as a brick!

Hope life is treating you well.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

Presents Galore - the joys of fussy cutting!

All of these cards (3) were made from the same 12 x 12 sheet of specialty paper. It's from Kaisercraft and was made up of all these random presents in the 3 colours. They are all glossy too. I cut them all out and then arranged them by colour group. I quite like the results!

1. Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock in whisper white and bashful blue. Tim Holtz word die. Cuttlebug 'morrocan screen' embossing folder. On further reflection I think I will add a tiny scallop border in red to the bottom of the word banner. Seeing it again, it looks a little unfinished to me now.

2. SU cardstock in basic black and whisper white. Kaisercraft 'north pole' spotty paper. Tim Holtz word die. Quikutz 'polka dot' embossing folder.

3. SU cardstock in whisper white, pistachio pudding and real red. SU stamp (retired) in real red. Kaisercraft 'north pole' spotty paper. Sizzix 'nordic sweater' embossing folder.

So, there you have it. All those hours spent cutting out paper dolls clothes as a child are being put to good use as an adult! Granted this fussy cutting did not require much skill - but those childhood hours gave me an enduring love of cutting things out - the trickier the better!


On a Personal Note -

My daughter and her boyfriend made it safely back from their road trip to Queensland - and they had a good time. Phew!!

Our football team got totally owned - Boo Hoo!! Hopefully they will do better this week.

It's been a bit warmer but another icy front is due to roll through on Saturday so back to wearing all my clothes at once. LOL.

Panther has been glued to the faux fur throw all week - his new favourite spot (until he inexplicably, suddenly has a new favourite spot!). Schnitzel was very glad when my daughter got back. He doesn't like it when any of his 'pack' is absent! His favourite type of maths is when one person goes out and two come back! He is a party animal! - loves nothing better than visitors - except the mailman! Total cliche, but he has taken a wholly unfounded dislike to the poor mailman.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers

Susie

It's Freezing..sooo...Snowflakes!

Our cold weather has upped the ante again and there is snow in parts of Oz that haven't had it for over 30 years. Roads closed - and lots of hot chocolates being consumed I'm guessing. In honor of the weather I am sharing some of my snowflake featuring cards from the last month. (8 in all)


1. Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock in bashful blue and whisper white. Patterned paper from a magazine. Hero Arts stamp in bashful blue ink. White snowflakes - MFT, Blue paint chip snowflake - Cheery Lynn.

2. SU cardstock in whisper white and wild wasabi. 'Snowflakes' fussy cut from Kaisercraft 'north pole'. Cuttlebug 'swiss dots' embossing folder.

3. SU cardstock in whisper white. SU silver glimmer paper. Patterned paper from stash. SU 'snowflurry' die.

4. SU cardstock in whisper white and basic grey. Patterned paper scraps from stash. SU 'snowflake soiree' stamps coloured with markers.

5. SU cardstock in very vanilla and lucky limeade. SU 'festival of prints' patterned paper. Mixture of snowflake dies from Spellbinders, MFT and Cheery Lynn. The darker snowflakes are from a paint chip.

6. SU cardstock in marina mist and whisper white. Patterned paper from a magazine. SU silver glimmer paper. Spellbinders and Cheery Lynn snowflake dies. Scallop scissors. Cuttlebug 'swiss dots' embossing folder.

7. SU cardstock in perfect plum and very vanilla. Pink glimmer paper from stash. Couture Creations 'tuscan tile' embossing folder. SU 'snowflurry' die - but this time I fussy cut the negative space (ie leftover piece from diecut) to make a new snowflake.

8. SU cardstock in wild wasabi and whisper white. Patterned paper from stash. MFT 'jumbo snowflake' die cut out of a paint chip. Wplus9 'hand lettered holiday' die.

On a Personal Note -

Big football weekend this weekend. Our team is up against the team that beat them in the Grand Final last year. This is their second match up for the season. We won the first one so here's hoping for a repeat of that win.

My son is live blogging the game so we won't be at the stadium. He is working steadily at building a body of work to help him get into his chosen field of sports journalism. At this stage it's all unpaid but that seems to be what you have to go through these days. He works two other paying jobs - one full time and one part time. I really admire his 'get up and go'. He has a lot of self discipline - something I did not learn til much later in life!

My daughter is off on a road trip with her boyfriend to deliver some things for her father and his partner. They are going all the way to Queensland. I suggested they go the inland route because there is less traffic (ie big trucks!) but now with all the icky weather/snow I think the coastal route will be safer. I know I need to trust that they will be okay - they are young adults after all - but I am still anxious! (Motherhood)

Hope you are warm where you are.
Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

The Man Himself!

Hello. Thought I would show today some of my Santa cards. Some current stamp sets and some 'ancient'.


Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock in whisper white and cherry cobbler. SU ink in real red, cherry cobbler and chocolate chip. Cuttlebug 'swiss dots' embossing folder. Wplus9 'word balloons' die. SU stamp sets '25 & counting' (santa), 'no peeking' (rudolf).

SU cardstock in very vanilla. Scraps of decorative paper for sentiment and banner. Quikutz 'diamonds & dots' embossing folder. Kaisercraft Santa stamped in tuxedo black and coloured with markers.

SU cardstock in lucky limeade, sahara sand and river rock. Patterned paper from stash. Paper Smooches stamp set 'santa paws' in tuxedo black and coloured with markers.

SU cardstock in cherry cobbler, lucky limeade and whisper white. Patterned paper from stash. Hero Arts stamp in tuxedo black and coloured with markers.

On a Personal Note -

Well! We got through the Antarctic Vortex unscathed! Nothing as severe as the Northern Hemisphere Polar Vortex, but very cold for us. Did have the heater on for the weekend for the first time this winter. Just too cold to only rely on a lap rug.

Panther and Schnitzel took up very appreciative residence around the heater! You know it's cold when the animals don't want to go outside!

Had a girly morning tea on Sunday for some of my friends. I got to try out some new recipes and my daughter made some of her super yummy chicken pies. The ladies loved them! We also had caramelized onion and mushroom tartlets, raspberry brownies and homemade palmiers.

Sunny today but still quite crisp. Was going to try and sweep up some more leaves but my knee is still giving me grief. Well really it's my whole leg - but mainly the knee. Off to the GP tomorrow to get it looked at.

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

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