Saturday, November 29, 2008

Last Christmas Stamp-A-Stack for the year.....

This past Thursday was my final Christmas Stamp-A-Stack for the year.

Here is the 1st card we made:

Solemn Stillness SAS

I've used the Solemn Stillness stamp set with the overlay done using Gold EP.

The colours used are Kraft, Bravo Burgundy, Blue Bayou and Very Vanilla cardstock along with Mellow Moss, Bravo Burgundy and Versamark inkpads.

I don't often use Kraft but was very happy with this combination so must make a note to self to try and use Kraft more often.

Now the second card I've used my all time favourite stamp set 'Season of Joy'. I'm so going to miss this set on Monday when it's no longer available for purchase but at least I have mine. If you like it as much as me but still don't have your own set then don't miss out place your order with me by 9pm Sunday 30th November. I can have it shipped directly to you anywhere in Australia and you will still have time to make some last minute Christmas Cards....... You can place your order by email or phone on 02 9620 9092 or Mob: 0418 218 467

Now to actually show you the card:

Season of Joy SAS

This is a very quick and simple card but still very effective and definitely says 'Christmas'.

I've used Real Red, Old Olive, River Rock and Very Vanilla Cardstock along with some Dashing DSP, Real Red Inkpad and a little bit of Real Red grosgrain ribbon.

This would make an ideal last minute card as it takes very little time and you can make multiples using just 1 sheet of the Dashing DSP along with your coordinating cardstock in no time.



 photo Nikki4.png

Another creation using Holiday Harmony DSP

In my last post I shared all the items we created at my Christmas Extravaganza which was held last Saturday evening. I mentioned in the post that even after making all these items we still had some DSP left, so I decided to make this project I'm sharing with you today, which is another of Makeesha Byl's wonderful creations she generously shares on a Demonstrator group each Monday and also uploads to her blog to share with all her readers.

Love Notes Christmas Box top

This project is called 'Love Notes Gift Boxes'.

This project is made using 1 sheet of DSP, 1 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock, some ribbon, 4 Love Notes & envelopes, stamps, ink and embellishments if desired.

This is the inside of the box:Love Notes Christmas Box inside

The sides of the box is actually held together by the ribbon which on the inside holds the Love Notes in place.

There is still room for some choccies or other treat to be placed in the centre of the box before giving it to some lucky person.

Like to see the Love Notes??

Love Notes Christmas Box Cards

All the Love Notes have been decorated with the Season of Joy stamp set and coordinating colours. I've used some left over Holiday Harmony DSP on 3 of them (there is still plenty of DSP left I just thought the 4th card had enough) and I've stamped an edge of the envelopes to match.

I really love the colour combination for the Holiday Harmony DSP which is Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate and River Rock. It's going to be a shame when I've made enough Christmas things but I'm sure I can put the colour combination to use with another stamp set or two.......

Now to work out what else I can make with the remaining Holiday Harmony DSP left. It's surprising how far 1 packet of Designer Series Paper actually goes.

Remember the Holiday Harmony DSP, Season of Joy Stamp set and many other items in the Spring Mini Catalogue are only available till tomorrow. I'll place my last order Sunday 30th at 9pm so if there is still something you would like let me know either by email or phone 02 9620 9092 or Mob: 0418 218 467



 photo Nikki4.png

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Christmas Extravaganza update

Last night was my Christmas Extravaganza event and we had lots of fun making our projects that were displayed in my last post. It ended up being a very late night, or maybe I should say, early morning but everyone went home happy with their items.

All the projects made where done using 1 packet of Holiday Harmony Designer Series paper along with coordinating items and there is still some DSP left over. This DSP along with the Season of Joy stamp set that I've used and the Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon are only available till 30th November so if you wanted some order now so you don't miss out. All other materials used are in the current IB&C and therefore available for purchase until 31st March.

Most of the projects have been CASED from Splitcoaststampers, Stampin' Up demonstrators or craft lovers that have generously provided tutorials for us to share and recreate these items. All items that have been CASED have a link to the original tutorials that I have used.

Would you like to see the projects in closer detail?

Project 1 was an Accordian Card Bag created by Dannie Graves which you can find instructions for here

Accordian Card Box

and the side view so you can see the Accordian part.....

Accordian Card Box side

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Hemp Twine, Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon, Sticky Strip, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Crop-a-dile, Pewter Jumbo Brads, Scor-pal

Project 2 was the Treat Box from SplitCoastStampers which can be found here

Project 2 - Treat Box

Supplies:
Card: River Rock, Holiday Harmony DSP
Accessories: Crop-a-dile, Metallic Eyelets, River Rock Double-stitched ribbon, Scor-pal

Project 3 was the Origami Box & Paper Bow from Splitcoaststampers which can be found here and here

Project 3 - Origami Box & Paper Bow

Supplies:
Card: Holiday Harmony DSP
Accessories: 1/16" handheld circle punch, silver brads, Pop-Up Glue Dots

Project 4 was the Box in a Bag which was created by Dianna Gibbs and you can see her tutorial here

Project 4 - Box in a Bag

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: Always Artichoke, River Rock
Accessories: Sticky Strip, Round Tab punch, Slit punch, 1/8" handheld circle punch, Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scor-pal

Project 5 was the lovely Gift Box with tutorial provided by Makeesha Byl which you can find here

Project 5 - Gift Box & Tag

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: River Rock, Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, River Rock double-stitched ribbon, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, thick cardstock (DSP backing board is ideal), Scor-pal, silver cord

Project 6 was another project provided by Makeesha Byl which is a CD Holder and this tutorial can be found here

Project 6 - CD Holder Project 6 - CD Holder close up

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Purely Pomegranate, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, 2-way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Project 7 was a card box with acetate lid and belly band along with 6 matching cards & envelopes.

Project 7 - Card Box, 6 cards & envelopes Project 7 - Card

The measurements to make this box are as follows:

Box base: Always Artichoke 236mm x 187mm. Score all sides at 35mm
Lid: Acetate cut to 197mm X 148mm. Score all sides at 15mm.

To make the Belly Band I only had A4 card in River Rock available so this is what I did.

1 x River Rock 34mm x 225mm, 1 x River Rock 34mm x 100mm

1 x DSP 30mm x 225mm, 1 x DSP 30mm x 100mm

I layered the pattern pieces onto the matching River Rock piece and then scored the 225mm length as follows:

Score at 15mm then at 53mm at either end. Place over lid of box and wrap to back adhere the smaller piece just connecting the edges so there is room to slide the belly band on and off the box. (hope that makes sense)

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Season of Joy, Party Punch (Hostess Level 1)
Card: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1", 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches, Always Artichoke 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Transperancy Sheet, Very Vanilla C6 envelopes.

Project 8 was another of Makeesha's projects and this is a Gift Card Holder which a tutorial can be found here

Project 8 - Gift Card Holder

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke
Accessories: 1 3/8" circle punch (for inside slot), Large Oval Punch, River Rock double-stitched ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

and the final project was a Christmas Cracker and a great tutorial for making this project can be found on Lynette Couper's blog here

Project 9 - Christmas Cracker

I'll try and replace this picture when I can take a better shot of it. The light was just too glary at the time.

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP
Ink: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Rich Regal Brads.

If you would like to purchase any of the items I've used to make these projects then contact me now by email or phone 0418 218 467.

Remember the stamp set - Season of Joy, the Holiday Harmony DSP and the Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon is only available till 30th November.



 photo Nikki4.png

Monday, November 17, 2008

Christmas Extravaganza

 

This Saturday evening 22nd November I'm having a Christmas Extravaganza where we will be making Christmas Bags, Boxes & Gifts using the Happy Harmony Designer Series Paper, coordinating card stock & accessories along with the Season of Joy stamp set.  This stamp set and Designer Series Paper is only available till 30th November when the Spring Mini ends.

The Event is being held at my house in Lalor Park NSW from 7.30pm till late and there are still 2 spots left if you are interested.

You will get to make each of these items:

All Projects

The cost is $35 with all materials supplied.

Contact me now via email or phone 0418 218 467 if you would like to reserve a spot.



 photo Nikki4.png

Monday, November 3, 2008

My weekend creations......

 

Friday night was fortnightly stamp night with friends, although anyone local to Lalor Park NSW is welcome to join us so email me if you are interested in coming along and I can let you know what happens. I like to have some sort of plan of what I'd like to do so I at least get something made. We stamp at my kitchen table so not sure if my mojo sometimes remains in my craft room but I always seem to get less done on Friday night stamping out there than I do if we stamp again on the Saturday night in my craft room (not as much room in there for everyone but Saturday is usually a smaller group).

This week I decided I was going to make a Christmas themed Free-standing Pop-up card and this is what I came up with:

Season of Joy 2

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock, Very Vanilla
Ink: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, River Rock
Accessories: 1 5/8" & 1 1/4" circle punches, Corner rounder punch, Crop-a-dile, Pewter Jumbo Eyelet, Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon, River Rock double-stitched ribbon, Sticky Strip.

This was my first attempt at one of these so I'm quite happy with it.

The only other thing I did that night was to complete a page in a Friendship Book from a yahoo group I'm in. See not much from me in that 5 hour period but the 2 Baileys and the fact I was sorting out my upcoming Summer Mini preorder might just have been contributing factors there......

Saturday night wasn't a great deal better unfortunately. I was supposed to have a Christmas SAS on Friday with a friend/mum from my girls school but I'd forgotten I was going to the Papercraft Festival on Friday so we moved the SAS to the Saturday night and the lady came with us to Papercrafts instead. This was her first time ever at a Papercraft Show so she was fascinated with it all. So Saturday night I was demonstrating and instructing on the Christmas Cards and in between working on some of my own creations..... I wouldn't normally do this at a SAS but this lady is also a friend and if she needed help I stopped and assisted her first. When we were done she stayed and watched and chatted for a while with my good friend and neighbour that I was stamping with as she was very intrigued by what we were doing seeing that she is really new to stamping and all that it has to offer.

So what did I create on Saturday night?  First off I stamped in another Friendship Book and then I decided to pull out my recently purchased but not yet used Bloomin' with Beauty stamp set. This set is from the current Spring Mini catalogue which ends 30th November so if there is anything you wanted don't leave it till the last minute and then find it's too late.....

Here's my Saturday night creation.

Bloomin' with Beauty 1

Not only did I use a new stamp set but I also pulled out some long neglected but much loved items to create this card and that was my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Fine Lace Background stamp.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Bloomin' with Beauty, Fine Lace
Card: Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Stazon Black, Cameo Coral
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Earth Elements brads, Tool Kit, Aqua Painter, Stampin' Dimensionals.

I loved playing with this set so Sunday after we returned from Church, as my middle 2 girls are doing their Holy Communion this month, I decided I was going to play with it some more. I picked out a Sketch Challenge from Splitcoaststampers this time which had a circular piece in the layering so I could also use my newly purchased Creative Memories Circle Cutters. I'm holding out hope for Stampin' Up to include the Coluzzle Cutting system in our next IB&C but I still want to be able to do some different things until that happens and I'm sure many of you out there have 'other' things you use in your creating too.

And here is this creation:

Bloomin' with Beauty 2

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Bloomin' with Beauty, Fine Lace
Card: Always Artichoke, Ballet Blue, Creamy Caramel, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Stazon Black, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, Stampin' Dimensionals, CM Circle Cutters (non-SU)

The colours I've used are from the Colour Coach. I was a little unsure at first but they have grown on me and I'm loving this stamp set and watercolouring again.

Next was this one:

Bloomin' with Beauty 3

This card was actually inspired by this card on Splitcoaststampers by Joanne. Now my card doesn't compare to Joanne's but it made me want to use my Nestabilities which are something rather neglected by me as I try to create only using SU items for my blog which of course can be done quite successfully but I didn't buy them to not be used ( I have enough of that sitting around...hahaha) and hopefully you don't mind if I start using them more.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Bloomin' with Beauty, Sincere Salutations
Card: Old Olive, Regal Rose, Watercolour Paper, Rose Red Prints DSP
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Nestabilities (non-SU)

I managed to make 1 more card using this set on Sunday and then I had to stop so I could get dinner ready on time and then get the ironing done. Housework....it always gets in our way....hahaha.

So this is my last creation for the weekend.

Bloomin' with Beauty 4

Now I like the other 3 Bloomin' with Beauty cards but I must say this is my favourite. This time I watercoloured with the inkpads and an aqua painter, just for a change and also because we don't have In Colours in Watercolour Wonder Crayons. I've also used my recently new Basic Phrases stamp set too. This one is all SU again too.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Bloomin' with Beauty, Basic Phrases
Card: Old Olive, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Watercolour Paper, Spring Break DSP
Ink: Stazon Black, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel.
Accessories: Small & Large Oval Punches, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Aqua Painter.

I'm so glad I ended up purchasing this set as even though I did like it when the Spring Mini was first released, I wasn't sure if I would use it enough. Well I don't think that's going to be a concern anymore so look out you will probably see some more in the not too distant future as I plan on trying out some more colour combinations.



 photo Nikki4.png