three wise men

Here is a card I made my mum for Christmas - the photo I used is a print of some artwork my grandfather did about 50 years ago. He was an amazing artist and did a lot in the New Zealand advertising industry in the 30's, 40's & 50's. This piece he actually did while working in New York (for Hallmark I think??). 

We have recently been reconnected to his work through two great books that have been written by Peter Alsop and Gary Stewart (& Dave Bamford-first book only) - first one was called "Selling The Dream - The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism" (available HERE) and here is one of the posters my grandfather, Gilbert Meadows, drew.

 The second one is called "Promoting Prosperity - The Art of Early New Zealand Advertising" (available HERE) and below are two from that book. My grandfather did a lot of ads for Anchor and one of them included a painting of my father - I need to get a copy of that one! 

Hope you enjoy checking out these books (published by Craig Cotton Publishing) and maybe buy yourself one for Christmas! hee hee

It's Christmas time.....

for something a bit different I thought I would share our Christmas tree at home. Every year we do a 'theme' and this year it's GREEN! It started when I found those tiny coats at a French shop in Albany - so thought as a sewer I would put things on the tree that represent us - well me and my mini me as hubby's into FORD (blue) and son HOLDEN (red) and neither of those would look good on my tree!!!! hee hee. SO I had a big box of Christmas cookie cutters and thought why not put those on the tree - the reflect the lights and colours of the tree really well!

Now.... mmmmmm what to do next year???? hee hee

Hoot Hoot - it's Holle's birthday!!

Well it was on Monday - she turned 3 (she's the daughter of a friend of mine). AND she (and her mum!!!) are ADDICTED to owls so I HAD to make a big owl using punches - and yes there is a retired punch for the face but I am NEVER selling that one! hee hee. 

The rest is fairly obvious what punches I used - but the hat was hand cut. I find sponging the edges of the cut punched pieces helps the 'character' to POP off the page! lol

Can I confess something - I have not sent ANY Christmas cards this year! whoops! I sold a heap last week and haven't had time to restock (I couldn't send bought cards could I!!!) so I'm sorry to my friends, family and customers - I may try and send New Year ones instead?????? lol

super quick birthday card

it was one of my girlfriends birthday the other day and I made her this super quick card. It was two stamps, I cut the two banners out at the same time and punched a 1/4 circle in each corner and placed on some bling and a triple bow! I love using background stamps like this one just to create a interesting feature. 

CLEARANCE BLITZ

is on NOW so be sure to check out what's available HERE - you can order online directly (you get your order directly from Stampin' Up! or email me at julia.leece@vodafone.co.nz to add to my orders. You can order non Clearance Blitz items at the same time! Items are selling out and new items are being added to the list so keep checking it!!!

Thankful for a few days away

Last weekend as I mentioned in my last post we snuck away for a few days at a friends beach house. I wanted to send him a card to say how thankful we were to be able to stay at his place at the beautiful Whangapoua on the Coromandel. SO I decided to make a card to match his house (pictured below). IT was fun (and frustrating as well as some things just WOULDN'T go straight! lol). Isn't it a beautiful place to stay! Thanks again Jason! :)

25th Anniversary

Yesterday was my (and my husbands of cause! hee hee) 25th wedding anniversary and we went away for a few days. This is the card I made him - HE on the other hand gave me diamond ear rings!!! whoops! I used the card kits from the Annual Catalogue on page 161 called Simply Fabulous Simply Sent kit. I mounted it on Brushed Silver card stock.