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

Christmas 365: June Update

Yes - late: but better than never!!

Have been trying my hand at paper ornaments. Quite a few at the almost finished stage. Hopefully photos later this month. The cardmaking has been continuing apace though. Here are a few of the latest... a bit of a gold affair!

Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock very vanilla and baked brown sugar. Music paper is from my stash and the coppery gold mount is a paint chip.

Same SU cardstock and stash paper. The Cuttlebug embossing folder has been highlighted with Wink of Stella - clear.

Stampin' Up (SU) cardstock in so saffron and very vanilla. SU gold glimmer paper for mounts and MFT snowflake die. Websters Pages patterned paper and Cuttlebug 'snow dots' embossing folder.

SU cardstock in baked brown sugar and very vanilla. Couture Creations embossing folder highlighted with Wink of Stella - clear. MFT and Cheery Lynn snowflakes cut from a paint chip. SU stamp set 'snowflake soiree' in cherry cobbler ink. The sentiment panel was trimmed into a flag and pierced.

Something loud and blingy to finish! SU cardstock in lucky limeade and melon mambo. Lime glitter, gold foil and gold corrugated papers are all from stash. Snowflake dies are from MFT, Spellbinders and Cheery Lynn.

On a Personal Note -

Had a bit of a rough month mood wise - adjusting to new medication regime. Things are starting to look up so I will just 'keep on keeping on' as they say. One benefit of the med change is that my appetite has returned to a more acceptable level! Don't constantly feel like I need to eat a horse! Hopefully will be able to speed up losing some of the damned weight I gained. To say 'not happy Jan' is an understatement!!

Off to the football with my son tonight to watch our team hopefully win. It's our mother son activity and I cherish the time. The other week my daughter and I attended a craft show. We go to the same one every year and it's a special outing for us. We saw some great things and my daughter bought herself a new craft product to try - air dry paper clay. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Happy Crafting!
Cheers
Susie

365 Christmas Update - May

Been beavering away on more Christmas cards for my Facebook project and also on some items for a stall my daughter and I are holding in December. As I don't want to be burning the midnight oil come November I have mapped out a weekly schedule for the rest of the year. 'Little and Often' is my new mantra!

Any how here are a couple of the latest Christmas cards - bit of a snowflake theme!

SU cardstock in Whisper white and Basic grey. Patterned paper is from Bo Bunny 'Candy cane lane' collection. MFT 'Jumbo snowflake' and Wplus9 'Hand lettered holiday' are the dies used.

SU cardstock in Rich razzleberry and Coastal cabana. The patterned paper is from Bo Bunny 'Altitude' collection. Dies used are Spellbinders 'Borderabilities', Wplus9 'Hand lettered holiday' and Dienamics 'Let it snowflakes'. The snowflakes are cut out of a pearlized paint chip.

SU cardstock in Whisper white and Bashful blue. The patterned paper was a freebie from a magazine. The snowflakes are cut out of whisper white and silver glimmer paper. The dies used are Dienamics 'Let it snowflakes', Cheery Lynn 'Snowflowers', Spellbinders 'Create a flake'.

On a Personal Note -

Weather has definitely turned to winter this last week. Very brisk days and chilly nights - no rain though, so very thankful.

Used my Mothers day present yesterday to make some cream of cauliflower soup - Yum! Love new kitchen toys (and craft toys!).

My daughter made a very yummy lemon cheesecake for tonight's dessert. Lucky I didn't eat lunch!! The 'Battle of the Bulge' continues unabated. I have a 'I love (me)/I will never leave you (food)' relationship with food. I enjoy food's tastes/textures immensely and it enjoys sticking stubbornly to my anatomy! The other hurdle is that I find exercise for exercise's sake just makes me feel murderous. An hour on the treadmill is an hour away from creating/seeing friends/being with my family etc. Working hard to incorporate as much incidental activity into my day as possible - this I can do and will maintain; and bonus - it's free!

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

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