bead angels

Last night on Crafters Anonymous Kristine McNickle taught us how to make beaded angels - but my first attempt wasn't at all 'angelic' so I decided to have a go using less traditional angelic colours!

Well actually it was the only beads I had that fitted as I couldn't find longer safety pins - YES safety pins - that's what you use to make these babes! I have since got some more bits so will try and produce a 'angelic angel' soon!

thanks for stopping by!

A 'recipe' challenge!

Ingredients:

Plain cardstock

Patterned DSP

Cutting Die or template

Adhesive of your choice

Method:

Throw all of the above ingredients into your “mixing bowl”. Stir until happy with your mixture.

You can now add your “icing”.

Use Icing Ingredients:

One Sentiment

Pearl

Button

Lace/Ribbon

Toothpick

the above was the ingredients and method for a RECIPE challenge we did last weekend on our Australian Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser. This recipe was written by Dee - only my friend Dee would put a 'toothpick' as part of a paper crafting challenge! lol I did manage to meet all the requirements - just and I made this cupcake topper!

a cute chocolate cup cake box

This was another project from our Crafters Anonymous Australia's Biggest Morning Tea event last weekend. I would call this a 'rolled box', the way it comes together is like rolling a sponge! lol I kept to my Early Espresso colour and Morning Mocha DSP. You may ask - where's the cupcake? DUH - in my tum! hehe - as you can imagine anything chocolate doesn't last long around here!!!! hee hee

fat free cake anyone???

this is a zero fat and sugar cake! hehe mind you if you put chocolates inside the box that would change that! This was the project we did with Suzanne, we made the flower out of punches and dropped a few drops of Crystal Effects to make it look pretty! AND talk about looking pretty - what about my new blog!!!! isn't it flash! Thanks heaps to Tia Routledge who gave my blog the much needed make over!

thanks for visiting

Testing New Siggy

Yep it works!!!

cup cake card

Isn't this so cute!!! Kristine McNickle taught us her version of the flower pot card at our event on Sunday. What the pictures don't show is the pull out part is like a 'a frame' so that is what holds up both the card when pulled out and while standing! I have loaded Kristine's sample below so you can see how it works - BRILLIANT!!! In the past when making this style of card I've put a 'W' in the bottom part to make it stand up but this way is WAY easier! Thank you Kristine for such a cool version!!!!!

notice board - Julia style!

Here is another project from our event last Sunday. It's a 'white board' with a difference. We had a colour challenge and it was to create something with the Stampin' Up! neutral colours. So I found a (cheap!) frame in my box of things to craft with and decorated the inside. You do have to ensure your decoration is fairly flat, that's why I stuck the flowers on the outside! To use the board you just write directly on the glass with a white board marker - which I also decorated to match but forgot to take a photo of it! This project is such an easy and practical and more importantly CHEAP project! I think I paid about $3 for the 'document' frame from a discount shop. I didn't want the frame to be a feature so the slim line document frame was perfect! These would make a great economical gift for Christmas or birthdays - I gave this one to my mum for Mothers Day and it looks GREAT on her wall!

thanks for calling by

who doesn't like a surprise of chocolate???

Yesterday on Crafters Anonymous we had a FANTASTIC day doing online crafting - 7 classes to be correct! There were 30 of us and we raised $745 towards the Australian Biggest Morning Tea event which fund raises for Australian Cancer Research. This is the project I taught which is a chocolate gift holder that when you pull the bow the chocolate appears! I used the Sweet Shop DSP from the Autumn/Winter mini for the container and the Sweet for the Sweet stamp set to do the decoration.

Over the week I will show you my version of the other projects so be sure to come back! Have a great week. :)

hand bag pin cushion in Twitterpatted!

I love the Twitterpatted fabric that Stampin' Up! have. And one of the other things I LOVE is handbags!!! Who doesn't like handbags????? Chocolate ALWAYS comes before anything else but handbags are up near the top! So why not make a little handbag I can have on my desk ALL THE TIME!!! This wee bag is a pin cushion and I LOVE her! It was REALLY easy to sew, you could do it by hand if you don't have a machine. The pattern is from Pearl Louise Designs #648 Little Diva Purse Pincushions from Thimble Cottage   Isn't she lovely!

Domestic Goddess!!!

I had fun making this card - and a very easy card too! I used two different sheets of DSP from the Domestic Goddess DSP, one for the background paper and one to cut out the items. I just popped the pieces out with diamensionals. I used the Just Perfect Alphabet stamp for the 'mum' and the For Everything stamp on the inside. I used the matching stamp set to the DSP that wasn't released to us downunder here but a friend sent it to me from the USA, nice friend eh! lol

window on the front of the card today

so after making the one at the online class at Crafters Anonymous I decided to play around with the tutorial and made it so the 'window' was on the front of the card - I didn't add any acetate to this one.
I used the LOVELY Attic Boutique DSP and highlighted the window with Pool Party - that colour is in SO many papers at the mo! And of cause I had to use the Big Shot Framelits too! What did I do before they were available????? I also can't believe I used some Daffodil Delight ribbon! But in the Taffeta the yellow isn't so BRIGHT, more of a subtle yellow but still the right tone for the DSP. The leaves were from the Bird Builder punch and the flowers were rolled from the 1 3/4" scallop circle. The words, which I stamped directly on to the DSP with Soft Suede is from the Perfectly Penned set - one of my favourites!!! I'm teaching this card at class today so it will be interesting to see how theirs turn out!
Thanks for spending a few moments looking at my blog!

a card with a window

Last night we had another great class when Tia taught us this 'aperture' card. The front is standard but when you open the card this window is there. I turned mine into a shaker box so it has silver glitter glass in it. I really loved this idea so made another one but with a different twist on it and I will show you that one tomorrow.
I actually used my circle scissors to cut the circles on these - so they are great for not just big circles! The doilies are from the specialty DSP - so so so pretty! These come in pink and orange but I just turned them upside down to get the white - you can also colour them any colour by brayering or sponging them.
see you tomorrow!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

Wanting to wish all mothers or woman who are there for kids (related or not) a very HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!
here are the two cards I made for my mum and my mother in law. These AMAZING card bases are only available through Stampin' Up! in North America, but a friend sent me some and I thought they would make LOVELY quick easy mum's day cards! You hardly need to put anything on on them to complete them. As you can see from the second picture the details are cut out. Just SO yummy!!

I slept in till 9.30am this morning! (wow) and then got yummy french toast made by my youngest and them some lovely pressies. As I type the sound of the vacuming is ringing through the house. Gotta love that!
have a lovely day you wonderful woman!! xx

Happy Birthday Big Brother

Tomorrow we are celebrating my Big brother's 50th birthday - his actual birthday isn't till next week. He's the last one on our MAD fortnight of birthdays! He is a photographer and curator at a museum and so I HAD to include a punch art camera on my card. His partner and him are flying out to Thailand on Sunday for a holiday so that's why I included the map DSP. This camera is slightly old school cause they are way more fun to 'make' than a slick silvery modern one! hehe.
I still haven't worked out what we are giving him yet - bit scary as the party is TOMORROW! eeekkk!

Pedaling Along

Don't you just LOVE this stamp!!! It's called Pedal Presents and it's the hostess stamp in the current mini catalogue. It comes with the bike and a few 'items' that can fit in the basket. I stamped with Basic Black on Calypso Coral the using white gel pen I coloured in the frame. I popped some 'hearts' into the basket and added some textured DSP along the bottom. What a fun set this will be!

how's this for a posh handbag??

Last night Tania Cordie took another great online class as a guest designer and this is what she taught us! It's such a cool project! inside the bag is a box and I'm using mine to put two DVD's we're giving the MIL for Mother's Day which is this Sunday here in New Zealand. I still have to make a matching card for it. I LOVE the Mocha Specialty DSP - the bottom part of the purse is flocked so you can 'pat it' LOL

It's POURING down with rain at the moment and I am half hoping it rains again tomorrow cause it's always great weather for crafting!! When do you enjoy crafting???

Hexagon quilt using Stampin' Up! fabric

I have FINALLY finished this hand sewn quilt! It is made using English paper piercing, so you cut out LOTS of hexagons out of paper, tack a bigger hexagonal fabric piece around the paper then hand stitch each one to each other!!! Once they are the hexagonal is stitched around all six sides you can take the paper out. BUT yes I discovered once I had hand quilted it that I had left ONE piece of paper in! he he
I learnt a lot about quilting making this. I have just finished another lap quilt (which I can't share until the birthday girl gets it!!) and so now I am ready to start my first bed size quilt!
But tomorrow is PAPER CRAFTING day!!
see you then!

another sympathy card

This is the card I sent the grand daughter to the lady who passes away last weekend. Katheryn likes soft colours - esp. pinks so I new I wanted something to match her personality. I stamped the flower in Versamark and then clear embossed it. Then before I sponged over in the image with Blushing Bride I coloured in the image with a white crayon thus giving more of a solid image rather than just a line image.
Of cause I matched the inside to the front and even a little stamping on the envelope.
Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend!

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

firstly I am so sorry I didn't post when I said I would - my computer screen died! :(
It felt like I was cut off from the world! Any - new screen all sorted so back to normal!!
Katelyn was our last neighbours youngest daughter. She turned 5 today - a day her mother was hanging out for as like many preschoolers she was SO ready to be at school!!!! heee heee She is a delightful bubbly out going young lady who lives life with HUGE passion!!! I wanted to make a card that matched her bright personality! The new baby stamp makes a perfect 'high 5' for this card. The card itself is an easel card and I used the scallop circle die and my circle scissors!! makes making circles so EASY!!! I love mine! I did miss wishing my cousins a happy birthday on the April 30 and May 2!

A day of fun and chocolate

for more information email me at julia.leece@vodafone.co.nz

sympathy card

Having a break from birthday cards today although it is my cousin Jason's birthday today (it was his sisters birthday on Monday and their dads - my uncle- birthday on Friday!). Unfortunately sympathy cards are needed way to often and recently some customers have lost their mother/grandmother. I wanted to make cards specifically for the receiver with colours I know they like. This one is for the lady who lost her mum. I used the Beau Chateau DSP to get the frame and make the flower and the strip on the envelope (under the card). Then I used the new Famelits to cut the top of the first layer in Very Vanilla. It's really easy to do - you just put the die in like normal and only wind it through the Big Shot a little way then wind it back again. Usually you may need to trim the last millimeter or two but that's easy. I then used the lovely wee hearts embossing strip at the bottom of the piece. A bit of sponging to highlight them and that layer is done. I love matching the inside of the card to the front like I have done here.
I will show you the other card I made for the grand daughter of the lady who passed away.

Happy Birthday to my MUM!

Yes another birthday today - my mum! Here is the card I made for her. I used two new products from the latest mini catalogue. I used the bust part of the stamp with the umbrella to make a skirt. I first saw Ruth Clarke do this and Narelle Hoggard made a lovely one too. What a clever thing to do eh! just cut off the hangy down bits off the umbrella to make a skirt!!!!!! I coloured direct to the stamp with Stampin' Up! markers. To create the background I screwed up a piece of DSP (oh yes that was fun!) and flattened it out a bit, sanded a little then sponged over some.