Merry Christmas to You

Good morning and a very merry Christmas to you! I hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas and that you are now able to relax a little for Boxing Day (or beyond that as it is here in Australia :-0 ) Here in Melbourne we had a hot Christmas - both Christmas Eve and Day were around 35 degrees and the relief of the cool change came through overnight with some much needed rain and we are still enjoying the cooler temperature :-)

This last design of card is on it's way (or hopefully arrived) to some special friends this year :-)

My Christmas was quite busy - up early Christmas Eve to do some food shopping (like many of you!) and it was good to beat the rush :-) Then lots of phone calls and some Skype with family and headed to the Church for 10:45pm where I was leading a choir to sing at Midnight Mass and Carols beforehand….it was a little tricky to hear the piano beside me over the industrial size fans (as it was about 30 degrees inside still) but I was told it was "amazing" - which is not something we've been before really :-)  We only started in time for last Christmas and with singing throughout the year we have improved some :-) It's not a formal choir - a lot more relaxed as we are just ordinary people, all of us - we sing a mix of new and old hoping that that others can join in and there were certainly a number of "new" in the pre Mass Carols this year - which was  lovely to be able to do :-)

Later versions had a red base and a different greeting :-)

Christmas Day was another early morning with some food prep and quick walk for Sally before we both headed over to see our very good friend Katerina and her lovely family who have so generously hosted us for Christmas for several years now. Sally spent a good amount of time smooching them all (before the Christmas Crackers sent her into hiding for a while!) and the decision was made - they have been too long without a "Sally" of their own!! Fantastic news my friends :-)

I have a couple more different cards to make and my Pear Pizazz ink pad needed refilling - and being a little rushed and tired I reached for the bottle and filled it up only to find as I stamped that I had added Wild Wasabi instead!!! Oh no!! But I have a solution in case you might make the same mistake - the ink washes out in water! So I put on some gloves and washed the ink pad under the tap till it was all clean.

And then put my glasses on before refilling with the right ink :-) All fixed - phew!!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Upright Z Fold JAI #284

Welcome to another warm Friday - the week has really flown and we have some beautiful more like Summer days already!

We have a new fun challenge for you at Just Add Ink this week. The lovely Di  has asked us to "Just Add a Fancy Fold" So that means any card that is not the standard upright or horizontal folding one and leaves the door right open for you to create something a little different and maybe even a little bit special!! The Design Team have created truly gorgeous cards of all shapes and sizes so I hope you can pop on over and be inspired to join us :-)

For my card I decided to go with an "Upright Z Fold" Christmas Card using the lovely Decorative Ornaments dies. I just love the new Red Foil and Vellum!! 

To make an Upright Z Fold  just start with a standard card folding horizontally and then fold the front in half on itself and you have the base for the Z fold. The decorated piece is cut to the same size as if it would fit on a normal card front. The idea is that it is attached only at the bottom and the top of it tucks underneath an element on the base (or back)  to help hold it upright. Here that job is done by the holly and berries.

And because it still is able to lie flat, it is easily posted too - although it might need some "operating instructions"sent with it so people know it sits up by itself as it can look a little lack lustre otherwise:-) 

Here the greeting was set lower than usual so that it doesn't get covered over by the holly. And the Red Fancy Vellum was added to some white card stock first to bring out the contrast of the red and white stripes.

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

Designer Series Paper: Holidays Fancy Foil Vellum

Ink: Real Red, Garden Green

Stamps: Embellished Ornaments

Accessories: Big Shot, Decorative Ornaments Framelits, Softly Falling EF, Gold Cording Trim,  Home For Christmas Enamel Dots, Blender Pen, Owl Builder Punch ( for berries on Holly)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the fabulous cards that the Team have made to inspire you this week and I look forward to seeing what type of "Fancy Fold" you decided to add to your card this week!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

JAI #280 Just Add Glimmer

Welcome to a lovely Friday in Melbourne! We have a fabulous new challenge at Just Add Ink to inspire your weekend crafting! This week Nikki has suggested we "Just Add Glimmer". Such a fabulous challenge - I just love bling - don't you too?! The Team have made absolutely stunning creations to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment and pop over and have a look :-)

I was inspired to make this special Christmas card. Mostly, my Christmas cards are kept relatively CAS with a little bling - as is easier to replicate and post. But every year I make a few extra special ones and hand made Ornaments for my siblings and their families. (There are 4 of us).  It started a few years back and has quickly become a fun tradition as we all get a little surprise each year to add to the Christmas tree on top of the usual gifts for children etc. So there will be a separate ornament to go with this card too.

It's hard to see but there is some gold snowflake Vellum in the background and there is a base. I combined two Tutorials into one from Splicoaststampers: the Tent card and Suspension card  and adapted the measurements for this 13cm square one and despite all the dimension it can still lie flat for posting.  I used 6 die cuts and some Metallic Gold Thread to do the suspending and suggest using a STRONG adhesive to hold it in place.

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White (Thick), Gold Glimmer 

Designer Series Paper: Winter Wonderland Vellum Stack

Ink: Real Red

Stamp: Embellished Ornaments

Accessories: Big Shot, Delicate Ornaments Thinlits, Christmas Greetings Thinlits, Circle Framelits, Gently Falling EF, Home for Christmas Enamel Dots, Metallic Gold Thread, Sticky Strip (Retired), Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the wonderful creations the Team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you create with Glimmer this week too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

A Sneak Peek and PCCCSC59

Welcome to another wintery Wednesday. And it's good to know that we won't be saying that for much longer - Spring will be here next week, yay!!

We have a new sketch for you at The Paper Craft Crew this week and some information on a few exciting changes to our challenges. So I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and check them out and also the rest of the Design Team's samples which are terrific as well :-)

So here is the sketch for this week:

Such a lot of scope for interpretation and I decided to make a Christmas card with some new sneak peek goodies :-)

The colour scheme I have used for Christmas decorations the last couple of years is Red and White and so with new Red Foil sheets soon available to all order I opted to give these a try without stamping . The little banners are also cut from the new Holidays Fancy Foil Vellum which features red, green and silver foil designs in a 12x12  pack. And yes, there is a new embossing folder too - called Softly Falling and isn't it lovely and subtle?! The only stamping on this very simple card is on the banner for the greeting - embossed in White.

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Red Foil, Silver Foil

Designer Series Paper: Holiday Fancy Foil Vellum

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Festival of Trees

Accessories: Big Shot, Delicate Ornaments Thinlits, Softly Falling EF, Triple Banner Punch, Silver Cord, White EP, Basic Rhinestones

Thanks for popping by today and I hope you have a moment to pop over to The Paper Craft Crew and see the wonderful cards the Team have made to inspire you this week and don't forget to see what exciting changes are coming in September :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan