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

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