Where has the time gone

Hi Stampers,

I have just noticed that i have not posted a post in nearly a month.

I can sum that all up in one word "Life", my life has been hectic for the past month, between work, home and christmas, i have not had much quality time to be able to sit and either blog, blurf or even create.

I have done a bit of creating over the past few weeks, i have had a few birthdays and of course there are the Christmas cards to do.

So in this post i will show some of the projects ih ave been working on, might even have to do it over a couple of posts to keep the photos down

So here goes

This is my Christmas card this year.

i CASEd it from a wonderful lady over at CA, Dawn Ferguson NSW

  The centre of this card was designed for our ATC swap, but im sorry as i made two ATC swaps at the same time i cannot remember if it was our CA swap or the Creative inker swap, im sure a fellow blogger will let me know which one, see i have been very busy

 This is a gift card holder i made to hold some special gift cards

 And the inside, thanks to my Sister Narelle for the idea & measurements

 I will blog the Birthday cards in another post, Sorry if this was a long post.

See you all back here tomorrow for part two of my creative days gone by (well last month anyway)

Another male birthday

Afternoon stampers,

On Monday this past week, my son celebrated his 17th birthday. I am starting to feel old now, my two children are growing up so fast, it wont be long before they spread their wings and venture out on their own...i will admit that i am not looking forward to that day, im sure there will be many private tears when it does happen. heres hoping there are still a few more years yet before i have to cross that bridge.

I had alot of trouble with his card, as in some ways he is still young, but in other ways he is so much older now.

So instead of settling for a teenage card, i went for a more mature card.

Next year for his 18th i have a fun card already picked out for him.

I hope everybody is enjoying this wonderful spring weather, well today here in Hamilton is is a wonderful day, almost a shame i have to sit here in my office and do paper work, lets hope it lasts until the weekend so i can go out and at least enjoy some of it.

Happy Birthday to the man in my life

Afternoon stampers.

This week was my darling husband's birthday, and i swear each year it is getting harder and harder to buy for him. he is not the easiest person to buy for.

After being together for nearly 24 years, i have run out of all ideas on gifts for him. But this time i ended up taking him out to the movies at the La Premiere theater, which has very comfortable leather lazyboys, we had a snack while watching the beginning of the movie, then bout half way through the movie they brought us in our desserts. It was a very enjoyable night and the movie "Crazy stupid love", was great.

I have struggled with male cards, so it is always even harder to make that special card for that special person in your life.

But i think i managed to get it just right 

Now the next challenge will be for my son's 17th on Monday, oh boy what to do there.

 Wherever you are tonight enjoy the All Blacks game, if you plan on watching it.

 I know my town is going crazy about this game, they have been all week, It is a big deal for us here in Hamilton.

"GO BLACKS"

TST # 18...one for the men

Morning Stampers,

How are we all today.

Today i started by doing a little blog surfing as normal, and popped over to my favorite challenge site

Try Stampin on Tuesday

And yet again they are yet to disappoint me with their sketch, for the first time in a long time i had a sketch come to mind as soon as i saw it.

Here is the sketch

This time i went for a card designed for the men in our lives

I turned the sketch on it's side as it fitted my chosen stamp better

I am really happy with this one, i must say it is one of my better ones lately. 

I might even put this away for my Husbands birthday or maybe Fathers day.

I have done a two tone edge sponging, and marker to stamp inking, i used three colors on the stamps.

The DSP is an oldy but a goody, i love this one for male cards, it is Windsor Knot.

With the second half of the year starting i now have a very busy time coming up with birthdays.

The first half of the year is a slow one for me, then once June hits it is all go until December, i should think ahead and start doing xmas cards now, as i always run out of time at the end of the year, with all of the birthdays, oh well maybe next year i will be better organised

Have a great day, Take care :)  

A card for all occasions

Afternoon stampers,

Well it was yet another cold day here in Hamilton, but thankfully we didn't have the rain today.

 Heater on in the evenings, winter blankets on the bed, is a sure bet that Mr Winter has arrived.

Well the card i have today to show is one that i did a while back as a thank you card, but i gave that oner away before i took a photo of it, so i had to re-create it.

This is an easy card suitable for any occasion.

Hense why i haven't added a sentiment yet.

The background was done using my Stamp-a-ma-jig sheet, and drawing/scribbling onto it the size i needed and then placing upside down on to the card stock and rubbing gently to transfer the ink, and the outcome is a slightly washed out background, i want to experiment a bit further with this and see what i come up with.

It is a really neat effect, i like it.

The tree was done using my markers and two different greens and Early Expresso 

Give it a try and see what you can come up with.

Try Stampin on Tuedsay #9

Evening Stampers,

Wow what a day I've had. Today i spent it with about 80 other ladies at the Hamilton Regional training, i went along as a guest, and had a really great time.

I will show you the swap and name tag i made for today's training day in a day or two, 

Today's post is about showing you my card i made for this weeks challenge over at

Try Stampin on Tuesday

Here is their sketch

At first this sketch stumped me, in fact it stumped me big time.

 Then i remembered an idea i saw quiet a while back and thought that i would like to give it a go one day.

And this weeks sketch fitted this idea perfectly. 

So here is my card

This did take a few attempts at getting it right, 

I am feeling ok about the outcome, but i think i will have to play at this a bit longer for it to have that wow factor.

Go on over and have a play yourself, this is a fantastic challenge blog,

Click on the link above.

Also on a really really great note i made last weeks top three, so here is my badge

Anyway im off to go and have a look through my great swaps i received today.

Catch you again in a few days.

Just Add Ink....... Happy Anniversary

Afternoon Stampers.

Yesterday my husband and i celebrated our 23rd year of being together and also our 13th wedding anniversary.

We started "going out" when we were only 14&15 years old

We had an adults only night out on Saturday night, but last night we went out as a family.

The kids really get involved in our special day every year, this year was no difference, they gave us a night off from chores, and gave us lots of hugs and kisses.

So the card i made yesterday was a quick and easy one, as my husband and i had a busy day sitting in Auckland traffic trying to get to a place we needed to be at, but due to an accident holding things up it took us just over an hour to travel 3kms along the road. But we did get there in the end, and the silver lining on this was that we got to spend a bit more staff free time together.

Yes those of you who visit the great site of "The Paper Crafters Library" will recognize this as her latest technique video, as soon as i saw it i thought it would make a great card to CASE.

I did change it a bit, i used a different stamp set, and i used my pads not the pastels she used, but the colours are the same as hers, as i was in too much of a rush to find my own colours.

Here is my card.

Also over at Just Add Ink this week their challenge it to 

"Just add stamps",

 that means no ribbons, brads or extras just the stamps and cardstock, so part from the one little brad i think i will enter this card.

yes i know there are a few boo-boos, so don't look too hard, but i will be re-doing this one at a later date, as i really like the layout and the design of this card.

Enjoy your day :)

Try Stampin on Tuesday....& Top 3 pick

Afternoon Stampers.

Well, i have had to have a few creative free days, due to a bad infection under my nail.

But the worst part is i have a false nail on the finger and haven't been able to get it removed due to the pain, so i can treat the infection, but with lots of soaking i have managed to bring it under control, and i have been able to create again....ya!!!

Yesterday over at Try Stampin on Tuesday, they released their second ever challenge, and once again i gave it a go. In fact i made two different cards using the same sketch

Woohoo!!!

I made the top 3 last week, i was so pleased as this is my first top 3 pick,
see my badge on the Left hand side
Click here to see the Top 3 Pick entry

Here is this weeks sketch

For the first one i went for that ever hard to do Male card.

Im not sure of what i think of it, i like it but then again i don't,

 i think it is the sentiment that needs re-doing, but this is what happens when you attempt to do things late at night when you should be going to bed.

Hot on the tails of Christmas

Afternoon Stampers.

I hope everybody out there in blog land had a great Christmas day.

With the usual to much food and maybe a drink or two.

I know i had a great day, this year was our first quiet Christmas day, with a BBQ brunch at home then a relaxing time for the rest of the day.

In fact we all ate so much for brunch that for dinner we ended up only having dessert, and eating our dinner the next day for lunch.

Well now that Christmas is over with for another year, 

 I have been hard at work creating a few birthday cards,  one of them is going to be a bit late, as every year im not organised enough to this card out on time due to the silly season. 

It is for my Father-in-law his birthday is on the 4th of January, but the problem is he lives over in Australia.

But never mind at least i do send him something.

This card is one that was sent to me in an email from Jacque Pedersen, from her "twelve weeks of Christmas", i decided to CASE it and instead of making it a Christmas card i made it a birthday card.

Well over the next few days i will post the other two cards i also made,

until then see ya and enjoy the rest of this wonderful holiday time, before our real lives begin again

CASed Snow Swirled

Morning Stampers,

A few days ago i was over at the wonderful Jacque Pedersen's blog and saw she had blogged a card that she taught us a few weeks ago at a class here in Hamilton.

And as i had to make a few quick last minute Christmas cards i decided on giving this another go.

I did change it a bit due to not having the Snow Swirled Stamp set or the tools Jacque used to make her great card, Click here to go on over and have a look, 

I have a busy creative week left ahead, i have been asked to make some little gift boxes, i have a birthday card to complete and i also have some gift card holders to complete before the end of the week, on top of that im trying to  finish up a surprise gift for my Hubby for Xmas, and with it being a surprise i have to do it only when he is not around, and it is not easy as the two of us spend alot of time together with working and living together, then at the end of the week im joining my son to go to a drifting event, yes it goes for two days and is in Auckland

oh boy well i had better sign off and get cracking

Mojo Monday 159

Afternoon stampers,

Well this is a quick post, as im off for a bit of pampering, im having my nails done, i haven't had them done in a very long time.

Todays post is for the challenge over at Mojo Monday.

Here is this weeks sketch

 I made another Xmas card, this card has some lovely bling, i love a little bling on the xmas cards, in fact i love bling and Xmas time is a wonderful excuse to break this out

Card:  Soft Suede, Baja Breeze, Very vanilla

Stamps:  Short & sweet, Lovely as a Tree

 Ink:  Soft Suede, Basic Black, Versamark

 Other:  Ribbon, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, SU punches

Christmas Sparkle....

Afternoon Stampers,

Today i found some time and decided to make a start on the Christmas cards for this year, and i had better get cracking as i have had a few request to make some special Christmas cards for others to give to their family members this year.

After seeing this fantastic Acetate (window sheets) card over at Debbie Lamb's blog, Click here to go on over and have a look at Debbie's great creations.

 I thought that is what i am going to have a go at today so i came up with three different cards using Acetate (window sheets).

I will post them all over the next few days.

The first one is using my Favourite Xmas colour combinations to date, Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze.

 Card:  Whisper white, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery

Stamps: Lovely as a tree, Snow swirled, Tree trimmings

Ink:  Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Versamark, White stazOn

 Other:  Glue dots, Su Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Silver Embossing powder, heat tool.

.....As i mop my tears,

Afternoon all,
Well after the very early start, it feels like it should be night not mid afternoon.
 We all had to be up at Auckland airport to say goodbye our son/brother at 4am this morning, and being in Hamilton we had a real early start. But he got away with no problems, so all i need to hear is that he has arrived safely, then i can relax a little bit.

But back to the reason we all read these blogs, sharing the wonderful crafts we all make.
As i mentioned in an earlier post after a busy weekend i managed to fit in a card class.

Once a month, the ever so wonderful and talented Jacquelyn Pedersen  (click on this link to view her blog) comes down from Auckland, to teach us ladies a new technique or a wonderful gift idea to make.

This month we did some sponging, and using the SU Stamp set "lovely as a tree", we created this amazing card

Can you see the little hint of glitter, not too much as this is for a male, this is the second time i have had a go at background sponging, and i like the effect, i just to have a few more go's to perfect it a little more.