Merry Christmas!

Hi!

A bit sad to say that this will be my last post for 2012. I'm taking the rest of the year off to spend some quality time with my family. I'll be right back into blogging in 2013 though, so don't forget me while I'm gone!

I thought I'd share with you the treats I made for my children to give to their classmates on the last day of school. Then my friend asked me if I'd make some for her daughter's class too. I ended up making around a hundred of them! Thankfully my friend helped me, or I'd probably still be putting them together!

Aren't they cute! Not so much after making 100 of them!

I took this photo about half way though.  I got the m&m's from Coles - they sold them in red and green Christmas packs! A tip for filling the plastic bags - use a funnel made of paper or cardstock, they just slide right down into the bag.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year.  I look forward to crafting with you again in 2013.

Bye for now,

Tina

Another Masculine Birthday Card

Hi!

Today I have another birthday card for you.  It was made at the same time as this card, and as I had my Distressing Essentials Kit out I decided to use it on this card too.

I've used the Clockworks stamp set to stamp a collage type design on the front of the card. I also used the retired Happiest Birthday Wishes for the sentiment, which is stamped on some Cotton Ribbon.

I continued the collage stamping on the inside too. I'm quite liking this stamp set now that I've had a play with it!

Bye for now,

Tina

Just Add Christmas!

Hi!

It's time for the final Just Add Ink Challenge for 2012.  The Design Team are taking a well deserved break and will be back in mid January. But for now we have a Just Add Christmas challenge. I decided to take on the challenge of doing a December Daily album this year, so it seemed natural to use it for my JAI challenge project.

I used the Cherry Cobbler Scalloped Tulle Ribbon and the Cotton Ribbon from the Holiday Catalogue to create the front decoration. Some Cherry Cobbler Glimmer Paper and a sticker from the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit finish it off.

The album was an old folder I had put aside a while ago, waiting for a suitable project.  The folder was quite flimsy so I strengthened it with chipboard before covering it with a quilted cover I made from the retired Deck The Halls Designer Fabric.

The actual album pages are for now only digital. Each day I have created a title page and a collage page of photos from the day. Later on, when I have a bit more time, I will used the photos to create hybrid pages for the album. For now, here's my pages from days one and two.

Poor Rob, cleaning the airconditioner and putting up the Christmas tree was all too much for him!

We all had a wonderful time at the Special Children's Christmas Party.

So, how will you Just Add Christmas?  Can't wait to find out!

Bye for now,

Tina

A Masculine BIrthday Card

Hi!

Sometimes in December we forget that there are other things going on besides Christmas!  I must admit it was a little strange making a birthday card after so many Christmas projects lately. This one was for my uncle, who turned 70 recently.

Can you believe this was my first play with the Early Espresso Coredinations cardstock? What was I waiting for???? Of all three colours, it is the one with the most contrast once the core is revealed.

My uncle lives near the sea, so of course I had to use The Open Sea stamp set, with some Mini Silver Brads as highlights. I used my retired Distressing Essentials Kit to help age the Sahara Sand and More Mustard cardstock.

More of the same to finish off the inside.  Love the way the inside looks like antique paper!

Bye for now,

Tina

Faux Silk Christmas Card

Hi!

My monthly stampin' ladies were keen to try another technique for their technique book this month.  I have a bit of a look around and finally settled on the Faux Silk Technique.

I love the luxurious look it gives to the front of the card, despite it being a quick, easy and cheap technique to try.  Who doesn't have tissue paper floating around their house somewhere?  A quick tip though - with the new inkpads you need to wait a little bit before scrunching up the tissue paper as the ink takes a little longer to dry.

I used Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla on my card. The stamps used were Ornament Keepsakes, Sweet Essentials and Snow Swirled.

Bye for now,

Tina

Festive Friday #48

Hi!

Here we are again at the end of another week and ready for a new Festive Friday Challenge!

This week Nicole has challenged us to use punch art on a Christmas card.  I did a bit of googling and finally decided I would make some punch art bells for the front of my card.

I thought they were really cute, and my kids knew what they were straight away, so they 'passed the test'. I've used some of the gorgeous Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper Stack on the front of my card too.  The bells are punched from More Mustard cardstock and sponged with the same ink.

I used a small scrap of the same DSP on the inside, as well as the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch.

I hope you can play along this week!

Bye for now,

Tina

Some Digi Scrapping

Hi!

You may remember that I recently had my computer crash.  I thought I'd lost everything, but thankfully a computer geek mate of Rob's was able to retrieve most of the contents of my hard drive. What has that got to do with today's post? I was working on this My Digital Studio layout, and luckily had just saved it before the computer crashed.

Now, I made this a couple of months ago and I didn't write down what I'd done, so I'll have to guess a bit! I think I only used elements from the Storytime Collection MDS DVD.  The bit I'm unsure about is the title, but I'm pretty sure it came from the same disc. I recoloured the alphabet strip down the left side of the page - I remember that because it was easy to do, but very fiddly!

I love these photos of Hudson on his first day of school, especially as in the main photo he looks like he's saying "What do you mean I have to go to school?". He may not be able to talk, but he certainly gets his message across!

Bye for now,

Tina

Another Festive Friday Christmas Card CASE

Hi!

Today's card was another CASE of a previous Festive Friday Challenge card of mine.  You can see the original card here. Today's card was made as a sample for my November Stamp-A-Stack class.

On this card I used different stamp sets - Ornament Keepsakes and For My Family, as the stamps I used in the first card are now retired. I also used Heart of Christmas on the inside.

I am really loving the Festival Of Prints DSP Stack papers for cards.  Each sheet has enough to cover the front of a card with some smaller strips left over to decorate the inside.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #146: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Doing a happy dance here, because it's Friday!

 Time for another challenge at Just Add Ink.  This week Kim has challenged us with this very pretty colour combination.
I decided to make a pretty, feminine card.

The papers were from the Festival Of Prints DSP Stack and the Comfort Cafe DSP pack. They look so pretty together! The butterflies are from the Papillion Potpourri stamp set.  I stamped the centre one twice, punched out one with my Elegant Butterfly Punch and curled the wings to give it some depth.

The Basic Jewel Pearls really finish off the butterflies.

Some more butterflies and Pool Party Baker's Twine to finish off the inside.

I hope you can play along this week at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

Snickerdoodles

Hi!

Last week I ordered myself some Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. I chose the Special Events set that includes a flower, star and present design.  The Cookie Stamps come with two different recipes, but I stumbled upon one for Snickerdoodles while blog surfing on Dawn Olchefske's blog. You can find her recipe here.

My monthly stamping ladies were my guinea pigs and they gave them the seal of approval.  Judging by the rate my kids wolfed them down they also gave them the thumbs up!

The photo was taken in Manual Mode as practice for my photography course.  The technical details : ISO 400, f4.5, SS 1/25. The photo is straight out of the camera.

Bye for now,

Tina

Paris Selfies Album Part 2

Hi!

Apologies again for the late Monday post - very busy weekend! I have for you today a few more pages from the Paris Selfies Album I'm making for my husband for Christmas.  You can see the first part of the album here. I also made it for the current Just Add Ink scrapbooking challenge, which is to make a Christmas gift  using at least 4 photos.

I did already show you this page the other day, but it wasn't quite finished - I hadn't added the journalling strips.  Now all it needs are the memory cards that will tuck into the pocket behind the photo.  The pocket was made from a Medium Envelope that I sealed and then cut in half to get two pockets.

You may have noticed the Pool Party tab at the side of the page.  Each page is made from the retired Square Envelopes so that I could include an insert between each page.

Here's the first side of the insert.  The photo is only adhered to the page on three sides, leaving the top side open to act as a pocket for more memory cards.

On this side I left the side of the photo open to tuck the memory cards into.  We didn't think about taking all our selfie photos in landscape orientation at the time!

I'll be back with more pages soon.

Bye for now,

Tina

Holiday Blog Hop

Hi!

Welcome back on a Saturday for a Blog Hop of Holiday Catalogue projects. There are just four of us hopping today, so it will be short but definitely sweet!

There have been a lot of gift type projects floating around in blogland right now, which is hardly surprising given how close it is to Christmas.  I decided to make a Desktop Easel Calendar for today's hop.

I googled the instructions after seeing some other calendars on the internet.  I found this tuorial on making the calendar, however the measurements are based on US sized A4 cardstock, which is fine if you only want to make one but if you are making a heap for a class or to give away it's a bit uneconomical.

I played around a bit with Connie's measurements and came up with ones that are more efficient for Australian sized A4 cardstock.

I used the Festival of Prints DSP on the outside of the box.  It's hands down my favourite papers from the Holiday Catalogue.

So, are you ready for the measurements?

Easel cut: 4 1/8" by 8 1/4"
Score: 4 1/8" and 6 3/16" (or you can just fold the piece in half and then fold one half in half again)

Easel Front cut: 4 1/8" by 4 1/8"

Box Shell cut: 4 1/8" by 11"
Score: 1", 5 1/4", 6 1/4" and 10 1/2"

Drawer cut: 6 1/8" by 6 1/8"
Score: 1" on all four sides

Hope that helps!

Next on the list is Margaret Knoops, who is sure to have made something gorgeous!

Bye for now,

Tina



Other hoppers:
Margaret Knoops
Nikki Sadler
Christine Blain

Festive Friday #46

Hi!

Yay! It's Friday again!  This week it's my week for Festive Friday Challenges.

This week Nicole has given us a sketch to play with. It's a fantastic sketch that has plenty of scope for interpretation.

I certainly took a few liberties with the interpretation!

As you can see, I flipped it on it's side and swapped the waves for scallops - my new Delicate Designs Embossing Folder and coordinating Large Scallop Edgelit had just arrived and I wanted to play with them! I coloured parts of the raised design with my Silver Stampin' Dazzle Marker.

If you look closely you can see that the Whisper White panel is stamped with the small snowflake from Snow Swirled. I stamped it with my Illuminate Glimmer Watermark Stampin' Pad. I mustn't've cleaned my stamp properly last time I used it because the images stamped a little pink (I think I last used Cherry Cobbler with the stamp) and now my inkpad it stained a little.  Oh well! The effect looks great on this card in real life though!

I also stamped the snowflake on the inside at the top and bottom - it's so hard to photograph nicely!

I hope you can play along this week at Festive Friday!

Also, please come back tomorrow (Saturday) for a blog hop showcasing products from the current Holiday Catalogue.

Bye for now,

Tina

Something Different

Hi!

No papercraft project for you today, instead I thought I'd show you something else that's been keeping me busy.  I was lucky enough to win a place in a photography course run by the brilliant Lia and Isabel at Camera Creche. Yesterday was the second day, and the first day we started to 'play' with our DSLR cameras in Manual Mode.  Very scary to turn the dial away from Auto Mode, but exciting too!

Here's one of the photos I took while playing. It's straight out of the camera.

So thrilled that I was able to get a crisp bauble and the blurred background!  For the technical among you here are the settings.

Camera: Nikon D3100
ISO: 1600
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec

Bye for now,

Tina

Desktop Easel Calendars

Hi!

Apologies for the late post today - it's been a busy day!  I started the day at my disability support group, where twice a term I get asked to do some papercraft with the mums (and occasional dad too!).  I have been doing it for a while so I thought I'd challenge them this time with a 3D project.

I followed this tutorial by Connie Babbert, but I had to alter some of the measurements to make the project more cost effective for Australian A4 cardstock. The US A4 measurements are different to ours!

The calendars are unfinished for now, as the ladies will be adding photos and ribbons to them next week.  That works out well for me, as it means I don't have to blur out a whole lot of faces to protect the privacy of my friend's kids! The ladies enjoyed making them, and we'll be doing a second calendar next week.

Theses two were made by Danielle and Kari. Danielle got very creative with hers, so I think the other ladies were impressed and will get a bit more adventurous next week!

These ones were made by Anna, Sue, Cristy and Gemma.  Sue tried a few variations too!

Bye for now,

Tina

PS: Come back Saturday if you'd like my revised measurements!

JAI #144: Just Add Music

Hi!

The weeks are rolling past so quickly! I can't believe it's Friday again and time for the new Just Add Ink challenge.

 

This week Trish has challenged us to Just Add Music to our projects. I loved the idea of this challenge, as I am very musical.  Did you know I can play the piano, clarinet and saxophone?  I can also play the guitar and trumpet (but only just!). But when it comes to papercraft I don't own many musical themed things at all! I had to delve into my stash of retired products to find my last scrap of music DSP to make this card.

This was the first newsprint DSP that Stampin' Up! released, I think it's about 2 catalogues old and I can't think of the name of it right now! I paired it with some Raspberry Ripple cardstock and ribbon, which I thought was a lovely colour combination.

So there you have it, a music theme birthday card.  A lot of the other Design Team ladies have made Christmas cards for this weeks challenge.  What do you think you'll make?  I'll see you over at Just Add Ink!

Bye for now,

Tina