Happy New Year's Eve!

Today in Melbourne has been a beautiful warm but not too hot day - perfect really for the end of the year! The day started with some early morning baking - ok after a quick trip to the supermarket when we realised we were out of brown sugar!! And then we had a lovely morning tea/ lunch with some good friends while our dogs enjoyed a social time as well. Dear Sally is still not allowed to play with her best friend Monty as she is still recovering from surgery a month ago to remove a tumour from a leg but she is otherwise well and happy and she spent the morning teasing him and tempting him to start some vigorous play as I think she knows it's not on and brings them both immediate attention from respective "parents"…just like human kids :-) And as is was also Monty's teenage "brother's"  birthday today it was the perfect inspiration behind this week's card for The Paper Craft Crew :-)

A great sketch this week especially for a teenager! The Team have created some great and varied cards for the sketch so I hope you have a moment to check them out. Here is the sketch:

And here is the Teen boy card :-)

Ok so the flower probably isn't so appropriate here but it IS red :-)

But I am pleased to say the Birthday boy did like his card and was quite keen to see how it all was put together too - an engineer at heart possibly :-)

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Gold Foil

Inks: Real Red, Encore Gold, Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Stamps: Really Good Greetings, Amazing Birthday, # Hello, Gorgeous Grunge

Accessories: Big Shot, on Film Framelits, Square Framelits, White EP, 11/4 Circle Punch,

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out all the great cards this week by the Team at The Paper Craft Crew. And I wish you all a wonderful start to the New Year and may 2015 be a special year for you and all your families!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Christmas! (and a sneak peak!)

Today is Christmas Day so wherever you are today I do hope you have a very blessed day filled with joy, peace, lots of love and plenty of fun thrown in for good measure!

Here in Melbourne it started for me very early - Midnight Mass where I was singing in a choir for the first time in about 20 years! It was a quickly formed and not quite practised enough affair (or so it seemed to us) but we got applause afterwards so it must've been ok! And woke up to a beautifully sunny and warm (but not too hot) day and it has been a lovely time of catching up with family and friends and Christmas Dinner is almost ready…. :-)

So it is also time for this weeks sketch at The Paper Craft Crew - the Team have come up with a great and varied array of cards to inspire you so do go and check them out :-). Here is the sketch:

And here is my card :-)

Yes - this is a sneak peek of some of the items available in the upcoming Occasions Catalogue!

I couldn't resist the fabulous Butterfly Thinlit dies and the co-ordinating Butterfly Basics stamp - not to mention the fun Calypso Coral Pom Pom Trim - so fun!!

Card stock: Brushed Gold, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Gold Foil Specialty

Designer Series Paper: Gold Soiree

inks: Pistachio Pudding(stamped off once) , Encore Gold, Crisp Cantaloupe

Stamps: Butterfly Basics (Sneek peak)

Accessories: Big Shot, Butterfly Thinlits and Calypso Coral Pom pom Trim (sneek peak), Large Polka Dots EF, Gold Ribbon

I can see this set is likely to be a popular one as it has so many images and a few sentiments as well. Wonderful when anything girly needed :-)

thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying your Christmas Day and maybe you have a moment to check out all the great designs by the Team at The Paper Craft Crew this week and i look forward to seeing what you will create with this sketch.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Three Days to Go!

Where oh where has the time gone?! Christmas has come around so quickly this year - only 3 sleeps until the big day - or 2 as with Midnight Mass on Wednesday the sleep will come afterwards, although a nap will be needed for sure. This year I am involved with a choir that will be singing just for the Midnight Mass and there have been a good number of practices so hopefully it will all go well on the night. Certainly there will be joy and that is the main thing isn't it :-)

However, music and a few other bits and pieces that have been happening  mean I am a bit behind with all my Christmas cards this years. Normally I have them all long done and posted by now but I suspect this year I shall be making them up until the day itself! And I wanted to use last year's Wonderful Blessing stamp as it is so beautiful and versatile and add some of this year's goodies to give it a new look :-)

Though I do still have a good stock of Midnight Muse card stock - from last year's In Colours, it was such a beautiful, bright navy - and so it was time to get it out and use it as it goes so well with the Silver! Embossed with the new stars embossing folder it makes the perfect night sky :-) And the stamp itself was stamped with Versamark and is embossed in Pool Party. Noel is another word that comes in the Wonderful Wreath framelits and it's topped with a Silver Satin bow

Card stock: Midnight Muse, Silver foil

Ink: Versamark

Stamp: Wonderful Blessing (Retired)

Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Stars EF, Silver Satin Ribbon, Basic rhinestones, Pool Party EP

As you can see, the main stamp is actually attached inside - I traced around the circle onto the Midnight Muse with a pencil to use as a guide for the Circle Framelits. Then I attached the inside site card to the base and added some dimensionals to the back of the Blessing circle before closing the card and adding it from the front so as to line it all up correctly. Because of the dimensionals, when it is closed you can't tell the frame is separate until you open it :-)

Thanks for looking….and my sneak peek order from the holiday catalogue has just arrived so I wonder if I will be able to not play until I've finished all the Christmas cards? Maybe or maybe not :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Blue Steel Joy

Welcome to the last Saturday before Christmas - hasn't it seemed to come so quickly this year?! I do love Christmas and the joy of Carol singing and celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends but this year I am not quite as organised as usual and so have a number of cards yet to do. So I turned  to Wondrous Wreath (again!)  to try another colour scheme :-)

Quite handy as a stack of cards :-)

Card stock: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Silver Foil Specialty

Inks: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Real Red'

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath, 

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits,Large Polka Dot EF, Satin Silver ribbon,  Blue Sequins (Non SU)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Special gift box and card

Some time ago I started to put together the awesome Merry and Bright star boxes and as I did so, I wanted to make them usable gift boxes and so I added another inside layer so there is a base and a lid. And today I used my first one for some chocolates :-) Of course this called for a matching card but first the box!

So this is the largest of the Cherry cobbler boxes - and it fits a whole pack of Lindt chocolates! And yes, it has been quite surreal in Australia this week with the terrorist situation in the Sydney Lindt Cafe. This gift is nothing to do with that but I did consider that buying the brand of chocolates might just mean standing in solidarity with the brand. But at the heart of it, they are beautiful chocolates and always bring joy wherever they go :-) And you can see here in the filled box, that I used some Kraft card stock to make the inside of the box - and as it holds the whole of it (despite temptation!) it is a very handy size!

And I was up early this morning to get a card made in time to go with this……and here it is :-)

Yes, it is similar in design to some I shared earlier in the week - just this time in more traditional colours.

And some touches of gold :-)

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Gold Foil

Ink: Pear Pizazz, Garden Green, Real Red

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath framelits, Large Polka Dots EF, Gold sequin trim, Real Red ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you have a great day today and enjoy getting together all your Christmas cards and gifts!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Joyful Christmas

Today has been one of those crazy pre-Christmas days which are full of shopping centres and car parks and always a lot of people. So it was a welcome relief to not need to buy any more presents and be able to get in and out relatively quickly. Whilst I absolutely LOVE Christmas itself, the rush, rush rush often associated with it, I am not so fond of. And today is of course Wednesday and time to share with you another card for The Paper Craft Crew. We have a great sketch for you this week and I hope you have a moment to check out all the great cards by the rest of the Team.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my card - I turned the sketch on it's side :-)

The colours I took from the beautiful All is Calm DSP and used some Pool Party Embossing powder on the stars. Touches of Silver Encore ink using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and the background is set too:-) For the greeting, the Noel thinlit from the beautiful Wondrous Wreath framelits seemed the obvious choice. 

Card stock: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Pool Party, Silver Glimmer

Designer Series paper: All is Calm

Ink: Versamark, Silver Encore

Stamps: Bright & Beautiful, Gorgeous Grunge, 

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelts, Stars Framelits, Pool Paty EP, Frosted Sequins, Satin silver ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out all the great cards by the rest of the Team at The Paper Craft Crew and I look forward to seeing what you make with this sketch.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

# Male Birthday for 200th Post

Today has been a rather strange Sunday - there is still a Tiger Snake loose in the back yard somewhere and so the day has been spent inside ( for obvious reasons!) and have also had an eye out to see if the snake can be seen - the idea is to then call the Catcher as he came yesterday without success. And I hope he catches it shortly as I really am quite frightened of snakes! So while I've been waiting… I decided to play along with the great sketch this week at Just Add Ink. And here it is:

Indeed the design is perfect for Christmas…but I need a card for an Uncle with Tech savvy (teenage) daughters having a birthday……so here is my card:

So I've used the #Hello stamp set and the the fabulously big @ - stamped in Night of Navy and cut out with the circle framelits and layered with some dimensionals onto a Silver Foil Sunburst. A little simple for the sketch I think but hopefully it will be ok.

The greeting is stamped and then cut using the Itty Bitty Banners Framelits and then one end is hidden behind the starburst.  I  cut some DSP into the arrow shape and embossed a Silver Foil banner using the Star framelits. I hope my Uncle likes his card :-)

Card stock: Night of Navy. Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Designer Series Paper: Flashback

Ink: Night of Navy

Stamps: # Hello

Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, Starburst Framelits, Arrow EF, Itty Bitty Banner Framelits, Basic Rhinestones. Night of Navy Blendabilitiies, 

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you can take a peek at al the great inspiration at Just Add Ink this week and maybe you might be the next to enter the Challenge!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Joyful Wreath and Snake alert!!

Good evening! It has been a warm Saturday today and one that has had a fair share of drama for us….it is Summer here in Australia and that means it is snake season. So supposedly they are commonplace. Except I grew up in New Zealand - snake free land - and I am not comfortable even walking into the reptile house in the Zoo. So you can imagine my shock and horror when I opened the French door to take out washing to hang and there on the doorstep was a snake - that quickly wiggled away! A Tiger snake by all accounts…venomous of course! First thing I did was scream as I closed the door and went to keep Sally the Lab away/ Of course, I had spent most of the afternoon at the craft table - leaving the French doors open…..Oh my goodness!! So a quick phone call and the "Snake catcher" came but by then the snake couldn't be found…so we are not going to sleep well tonight I suspect!! The Catcher will come tomorrow and I will certainly keep a look out in the meantime. Is amazing and a relief the snake didn't come inside …and I was working in the garden this afternoon too….is scary what might have been. I am told the Tiger snake is more afraid of me than I of it but those who know me will tell you that is not likely!!! We haven't had snakes here before but there is  major construction going on next door so that is the likely source….better not be any more is all I can say!

In the meantime, before the snake drama I was working on a couple of Christmas cards using the Wondrous Wreath set - the first is using Traditional Colours and some retired Tule Ribbon to match the Cherry Cobbler Embossing powder.

Card stock: Pear Pizzaz, Whisper White, Gold Foil Specialty

Inks: Pear Pizzaz, Garden Green, Versamark

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelts, Large Polka Dots EF, Gold Sequin Trim, Cherry Cobbler EP, Cherry Cobbler Tule Ribbon (retired)

And the second is a revisit of the Gold and Silver Themed Challenge card I made earlier in the week for the Friday Mash Up where I was Cindy's pick as a Glamette - such a lovely surprise!! And you can see my original  post here

This time I embossed the greeting on the card first and then embossed the white card with the Large Polka Dot EF only above the greeting.

So I started by embossing the many leaves in Silver, then allowed time for it to cool and rubbing with the Embossing Buddy before adding the other layers - also one at a time. And of course added some silver and gold sequins. 

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Gold Foil specialty

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Wonderful Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Large Polka Dot EF, Silver, Gold and Cherry Cobbler EP, Silver Satin Ribbon, Gold Sequin trim, Frosted Sequin embellishments, Tombow glue, Dimensionals, glue dots

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Birthday for The Paper Craft Crew

It's the silly season indeed - people doing silly things on the roads and especially in shopping centre car parks. Whilst I really love Christmas and  getting ready to celebrate with friends and family it almost  seems as though we are back in 1999 - remember how the world as we knew it was going to end at Y2K?? I'm glad I've done most of my shopping already - well, all the postal ones anyway!

And so today is Wednesday and time for another sketch from The Paper Craft Crew - so I thought I'd take a short break from Christmas cards as I have a couple of Uncles with birthdays coming up :-)

So here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

Such a fun sketch - especially for a male card I think :-)

The card base is some Basic Black topped with Island Indigo card and the World Map is first stamped and then sponged almost randomly to give some definition. It's been a long time since I did some sponging!!

The bottom half of the card is embossed with the Arrow EF and then I used some more of the map image (sponged ) for the inside of the postage stamp and the banner.  The Little Letter framelits make the Gold Foil HB to fit inside the postage stamp so easily (mounted on tiny pieces of dimensionals)  and the oval framelits create the central frame which has some more  dimensionals underneath to lift it like a real frame.

Card stock: Basic Back, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Gold Foil

Ink: Island Indigo, Momento Tuxedo Black,

Stamps: World Map, Really Good Greetings

Accessories: Big Shot, Ovaland Little Letters Framelits, Arrow EF, Postage and 1" square and Hexagon punches, Black Satin Ribbon, Blue sequins (non SU)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out all the great inspiration by the rest of the Team at The Paper Craft Crew and I look forward to seeing what you will make with this  fun sketch this week.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Silver and Gold Christmas

It's been a typical "four seasons in one (Melbourne) day" - we woke at 5am to overhead crashes of thunder and flashes of lightening followed by heavy rain. This was blown away by a gentle breeze and replaced this afternoon with such glorious warm sunshine that as the rhyme goes "dried up all the rain" but as I type the clouds are closing in again and I'm sure there will be at least rain coming down through the "spout" again :-)
And "the patient" is resting comfortably (Sally, the black Lab had surgery to remove a mass from her leg mid week) so I will gladly take the opportunity to sit at the craft tablet and make a card!

At The Friday Mashup this week is a great challenge to use Silver and Gold - and for the Mashup, to make a Christmas project as well.

And as I still haven't quite finished all my Christmas cards, I thought I'd opt for the whole Mashup :-)

For the card base I used some Brushed Silver card and then there are three layers of embossing powder to make up the wreath - Silver,  Gold and the berries in Cherry Cobbler. The matching framelits mean cutting out the wreath is so easy and is added with dimensionals. The gold foil Joy is all part of the set too :-) A sprinkling of gold and silver sequins and a Silver Satin ribbon bow and the card is complete!

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Access: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Large Polka Dots EF,  Silver, Gold and Cherry Cobbler EP, Frosted Sequins assortment, Gold Sequins, Silver Satin Ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out the great challenge at The Friday Mashup and the wonderful projects their Team have made to inspire - and maybe you might be the next to enter :-)

EDITED TO ADD: A huge thank you to Cindy for choosing my card as your Glamette this week! Such a lovely surprise :-) 

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Live the Life

One of the best things about being creative is the friends that we make through sharing our love of stamping and card making. Today's card is for one such friend who is celebrating a special birthday and it was such a joy to be able to make her a special card to celebrate!

And no I didn't use a "Birthday" greeting here :-)  I wanted to focus instead on the 65 as that age has of course (until very recently) been associated with Retirement and looking forward to living your dreams of travel etc and enjoying a bit more free time. And so the ideas for this card began to flow :-) 

What better fun than a Shaker card for a sense of excitement at what life has yet to offer?

The card base is Basic Black topped with a layer of White and the gorgeous DSP is a mixture of Back to Black ( I love the Retro look of this!) and the In Colour Stacks. For the Shaker window I used the Circle Framelits and Shaker Frame adhesive to hold it all together. And because this is a little higher than regular Dimensionals I actually cut the DSP with the circle framelits too and added the Strawberry Slush piece on dimensionals to help the window feel more surrounded. For the inside shaker parts I punched a mixture of Strawberry Slush and Silver Glimmer card with the Confetti Stars punch and added some silver sequins for a further touch of bling. One little star also graces the middle of the butterfly. And the stars of the card - the numbers are first covered in Crystal Effects and left overnight to dry before being adhered in the morning. This adds a lovely thickness and shine to them :-)

Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Strawberry Slush, Silver Glimmer

Designer Series Paper: Back to Black, In Colour Stack

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Strawberry Slush

Stamps: Really Good Greetings, Kinda Eclectic

Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, Window Sheets, Confetti Stars, Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches, Frosted Sequins, Shaker Frames, Crystal Effects

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you too can "live the life you've imagined" or as near to as circumstance allows :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Christmas Wrap

Welcome to another wonderful - and a very busy Wednesday! This week has seen the family in New Zealand's presents for Christmas bought, wrapped and posted all within 24 hours -thats two Nieces, one  fabulous nephew, their parents.grandparents etc etc and other siblings too. So quite a feat! Normally I would have a little longer to get things ready but it was decided on Friday night when Sally (the Lab's) biopsy results came in, to book her in for removal of the mass in her leg this Tuesday. And  that means that I will be at home with her for a week at least till she is safe on her feet. Hence the mad Christmas shopping rush over the last couple of days...
And so now we are home and she is sleeping soundly at last and I can take a moment share with you the great sketch this week at The Paper Craft Crew. I hope you can check out the great inspiration the Team has for you this week. Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

The card base is some Cherry Cobbler card topped with some DSP from the beautiful Trim the Tree stack. Next is a label also from Cherry Cobbler card and is cut it in half, layered with the white label on top. The fun trees are from the new Festival of Trees set and are stamped in Garden Green as well as some Cherry Cobbler ink and the greeting is from the Good Greetings set.

And there is of course a good splattering of touches of bling - from the strip of gold glimmer card and gold and red Glimmer stars and a some basic rhinestones to finish.

Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Red and Gold Glimmer 

Designer Series Paper: Trim The Tree Stack

Inks: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler

Stamps: Festival of Trees, Good Greetings

Accessories: Big Shot, Stylish Stripes EF, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Stars Framleits

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have time to check out all the great inspiration the rest of the Team at The Paper Craft Crew have for you and I look forward to seeing what you create with this sketch this week!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan