HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SON!!

My son turns 17 today - where has all the time gone! He LOVES his music - all genre except 'house and most country' LOL He plays guitar in his rock band and his favourite colour is PURPLE! It was also his first word too, most kids say 'dada' (our daughter did) but no my son said 'purrpill' -so cute, his second word was 'mana' which is what he called me for about 4 years! hee hee.
So this is the card I made for him. Of cause it's Elegant Eggplant, and it's a stepper card. I should of taken a picture from the side so you can see what it does but Google stepper cards and see what comes up! makes for an interesting change.
see you tomorrow for MORE birthdays!

Happy birthday to my brother

Today is one of my brothers (I only have two and no sisters) birthday. He works at the tax department so  he relaxes by doing furniture restoration. And he does a pretty good job at it too! 

SO to make his card I had to use the Tool Shed stamp. I kept it pretty simple as inside I made a gift card holder for his Mitre10 gift card! Hopefully he will like it. 

I have more birthday cards coming up this weekend and into the week. It's nearly as expensive as Christmas this week in my family!! Actually it probably is as we spend more on birthdays than we do at Christmas. Esp as my brothers don't have kids so we ensure the kids give them gifts as well as one from us. See you all tomorrow

what's lurking in our sea??????

I woke up at 5 am this morning with this idea in my head! I've been wanting to play more with the new Elegant Bird die and so before I did all the birthday cards (4 this week!!-both brothers, mother and son!!) I HAD to get this idea into a card! It was fun trying to find a sentiment that went with it!!
According to a friend I wasn't the only one to come up with this idea but I just say - great minds! lol
I used the tail of the bird for the alien sea monster and the edge of the wings for the waves of the sea. I've sponged the sky with clouds. Of cause Build a Monster was my go to stamp set for the sea worthy dude's face!
I will share the rest of the cards over the next few days!
Have a lovely weekend!!!

My first ever quilt!!!

 Today I finally finished my very first quilt! This is one of the reasons I haven't been making so many paper projects of late! I have another quilt that I just need to do the binding on, but I wanted to practice the binding on this sewing one first as it was black and could hide any mistakes I might make along the way! lol
I did all the embroidery by hand and trust me - embroidery with gold thread is HARD! lol I did have fun finding all the embellishments for it. I sewed on buttons, safety pins, beads, lots of thread and even a pair of scissors!
One of the reasons I wanted to do this wall quilt was because I have my grandmothers antique sewing machine that looks EXACTLY like the one in this quilt!! I will hang up the quilt next to the machine!
And as I said it's my first EVER quilt so please be kind with your comments! hehe I got to learn SO much doing this - so on-wards and upwards!!!

bright and bold for a 100 year old!

A family friend is turning 100 soon and she is nearly blind so I had to make a card that was big (it's twice the size of an average card), bright and lots of textures. I think I achieved it - it's not everyday I work with Daffodil Delight! I used the NEW edgelits dies and matching embossing folders, and of cause the NEW framelits! I crimped the Attic Boutique DSP for more texture. I used dimensionals for lifting the layers on the card. I have even used Crystal Effects on the 100 so she can feel it as well as see them (hopefully!)

And I topped it off with a HUGE bow! I hope she likes it. 

Tropicana in April!

it was awesome to get an ole 'faithful stamp set out to play with!!! Fifth Ave has been one of my favourites for as long as I've been a Stampin' Up! demo! I used the masking technique for this one so it looks like a gathering or bouquet of flowers rather than a background of mixed petals. But of cause I used the crayon resist technique too with it. Again it was on glossy card stock and I sponged the colour on. The bold Calypso Coral just makes it feel so tropical - hence the name!! anyway - hope you have a lovely weekend and get some crafting in!!

more sponging and playing with white crayons!

Here is another card made using the crayon resist technique. This time I used a stencil and drew the crayon thru it to create the swirls. Again I used glossy paper which makes sponging so easy!!

I am a big Miranda fan (British comedian) and one of the quotes from her tv show is from her mother that says "SUCH FUN"! which is what this technique is all about!! hee hee

If you would like to have a go at make a card similar to the gift card holder that I showed yesterday go to the comments as Kim has put a link to Splitcoast Stampers site where she did a full tutorial (including a video!) - thanks for the link Kim!!

where has the last week go?????

at least I managed to do some crafting yesterday!! This was the class on Crafters Anonymous last night - a cool gift card holder card that Kristine McNickle taught. I used Riding Hood Red as my base card and used the new edgelet die to create the scallop, it's more detailed than just a punch but hard to see in the photo. I used a cool technique called 'crayon resist' which uses a white crayon. You stamp your image on glossy paper, then colour some parts with the white crayon, I used it to give the petals a 'shine'. Then you sponge over the top. Where the crayon is the ink doesn't stick. I have made two more cards which uses this technique so I will show you tomorrow.
Isn't the inside of the card cool! It uses the Stampin' Up! envelope die. I am teaching this card tomorrow at my class cause I love the idea so much!! Thanks Kristine!!!

another Crafters Anonymous class

This cool box was a class we did a few weeks ago on Crafters Anonymous. It is very pretty in real life, although it took a bit of folding and scoring. In the USA there is a die available by Stampin' Up! but it's not available here (yet???). I used the new Twitterpatted DSP for this one.
You can have it up or down, not sure which one I like more?

Yesterday I showed you the Easter gift I sent my Creafters Anonymous swap partner Debi, and here is the lovely gift I received from Debi. Isn't it cool!!! I love all the glittery birds.And in the bag there was (note the word WAS) LOTS of lovely chocolates - including Pineapple Lump marshmallow eggs - OH WOW how cool were they!! For those not in New Zealand, Pineapple Lumps are a New Zealand favourite lollie (candy, sweets). They are so yummy!

my EASTER gift for Debi

On Crafters Anonymous we held a Easter Swap and I got Debi Ryan as my swap partner. The deal was that you had to create a box/bag/container of some sort to hold chocolate and a matching card. I decided that I would try to make a bag out of fabric that I often make out of DSP. I used the lovely Spice Cake fabric and it came out OK. It was definitely harder but I got there in the end! The card I used the new framelits and matching DSP. Unfortunately the DSP is no longer available BUT the fabric is!! Following the end of a mini catalogue some products are put on a 'carry over' list and the Spice Cake fabric is one of those. So it's not to late to order some of this FABULOUS fabric!!!

The Open Sea - a fond farewell

this card is made using the stamp set 'THE OPEN SEA" and matching DSP- both from the mini catalogue that retired at the end of last month. I did love both the stamp set and the papers. It is a struggle for many card makers to make masculine cards. I presume it's because most of us card makers and females and we know what we like - pretty! lol So when a great stamp set like this one comes along we fall in love with it and hope it comes around again in the new Main Catalogue in September. Even if the stamp reappears the matching DSP paper wont. SO it's sad to say good bye to it!
I've think I've done my dash with this style of card, but I am teaching this card for the last time this weekend. Thanks again for visiting :)

some more cards made from the new mini catalogue products!

I have been a tad busy and not spent much time on my blog lately and I do apologise for my slackness - so I have two cards to share today! The first is using the new bigz bird die and the yummy Attic Boutique DSP. I used new embossing folder on the wings, lots of ink, spritz and other 'aging' techniques on the DSP - even stamping!

The second card is also from the same DSP - all I did was cut out the paper, put crystal effects on the two time pieces and sponge the edges. Added a strip of DSP under the ribbon (which I added spritz on) and made the 'Happy Birthday' banner. It was very easy with such lush paper!

Anyway it's Easter Sunder here already in New Zealand and one of my FAVOURITE days of the year - there is Faith, Hope and CHOCOLATE!!!

Happy Easter everyone! xx

HAPPY EASTER!

Last night Dee Sturgeon took the online class on Crafters Anonymous and she taught us this Easter acetate box. It's a great size and very sturdy and perfect for the two bigger eggs I had plus a few small ones that I had got for my mum for Easter. The bunny on the front is a punch art bun that I made last Easter! I found it last week when I resorted my craft room so I thought I would use it as the main embellishment. The instructions for the bunny can be found HERE on my post from last year.
I used the current Easter wheel for the other decorations. The box is made with Blushing Bride and Chocolate Chip. And of cause LOTS OF CHOCOLATES!!!

today's New Mini Catalogue launch

Today we had a ball at my launch party for the new Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue down here in New Zealand. This is the display table I had showing off all the yummy new stuff and some of the projects I've made using the new products.
Every attendee got a gift bag which had a mini catty (of cause! lol) some retired DSP cut to 6"x 6", some makeup samples and moisturiser (we all need a pamper!), some chocolate (ALWAYS!!) and a can of water (cause I thought it was different! hehe) which I decorated using the new product.
The bag I decorated with the awesome Elegant Bird die and Twitterpatted DSP cut with the edgelets and a tag from the Loving Thoughts set. The birds wings were embossed with the Polkadots folder and rolled with the new Chamomile wheel.
The see thru can of water (still makes me giggle) I used the Apothecary Art stamp set and the matching framelits to decorate it. The belly band is the Twittipated DSP.
This is the project we did as it was a class as well as a launch party. Some of the ladies have seen me make these cards on my blog so they asked if we could make one today - so I was inspired by the Sweet Shop Suit in the mini. I used the Sweet Shop DSP and the cone from the Mouthwatering stamp set. We layered up the scoops on the ice cream, one lady put 3 scoops on hers! We then used the versamark marker pen and covered the ice cream scoops and then we covered it the NEW Scented embossing powder - yes you read the right - SCENTED embossing powder!!! There is 3 scents - Cherry, Vanilla and Melon. They are a fun thing to add to a card like this. They say the scent lasts a few weeks.
This is the inside. We used Confetti stamp set to 'sprinkle' colour on the Pool Part card and on the belly band is Calypso Coral ribbon and a few framelites along with the sentiment from the new set -Sweet Cake.

It was a fun day and we had a ball. To end we had a yummy afternoon tea and all the ladies LOVED the cake I made so I thought I would share the link to the blog I got it from - it was Gluten Free Date & Ginger Cake.

HERE is the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21569137/Gluten-Free-Date-and-Ginger-Cake

Thanks for visiting and sharing this fun day with us.