Merry Christmas

I realise I haven't been posting this week but I have been very busy! Unfortunately it didn't involve ANY crafting! We have just bought a house which is conditional on us selling our house by the end of February so we have been doing stuff around the house getting it ready to sell etc. Isn't it funny how things that you have wanted done for AGES suddenly get done when you want to move! Go figure!
It also means we have to take down the Christmas tree and all the decorations on Boxing Day as we can't have the decorations in the photographs. Luckily I hadn't done any of the decorations - my daughter did it and she didn't go over board! One thing I did do was cleaned out my craft room (again!) lol I now have all the curtains open and it looks great! Pity I wont be able to have a play in for much! I will try and post anything I do get a chance to make! I will also keep you updated with how the sale of the house is going.

I would like to wish you all the best for this festive season. I hope you have the people who are special to you with you sometime over the next week or so, and that 2011 is a wonderful year for you. I would also like to thank all the wonderful people who leave lovely comments on my blog as they have often lifted me when I needed it the most! Also I want to acknowledge the amazing crafters who share their work for all of us to 'ooo' and 'aaaa' over, get inspired from and generally motivate us - we can only hope that one day we would be as talented as you are!!

Merry Christmas!

well we had to have a girl legs one too!!

so here she is. I am a BIG fan of RED shoes so that was what led this design. They are soooooo fun to make - I can't wait to make more hehe. This is Real Red and Whisper White, I used the small circle punch from the Itty Bitty punch pack in the new Summer Mini for the buttons and the 1 1/4" circle punch for the baubles on the shoes. The rest is just hand cut.
I got the inspiration to do these from a card I saw Valita Reynolds made - go check it out here

what a yummy set of elf legs!!

I have been having a ball playing with these skinny cello bags and when I saw these Christmas Jellybeans at The Warehouse today I knew straight away what I was going to do with them! Aren't they just a hoot! I freehand cut the shorts and the shoes from Garden Green cardstock and used my white gel pen to do stitching etc. Then using the Delightful Decorations stamp set I made the 'baubles' on the toes of the shoes from one of the little stamps - it says 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'. And just to finish off I used some of the scrummy ribbon from last months promotion.
Hope the silly season isn't stressing you out too much, I find shoppers are very grumpy at the mo which is such a shame as it is just a great time of year - esp. when there are funny things like these legs around!! Hope when you go shopping that the car park is calm and the till queues are short!

the rules of chocolate!!

this cool gift card box - yes it's a card that holds a king size bar of chocolate inside it! - was made by Sandra Mason who is my swap sister for the 12 days of Christmas over on Crafters Anonymous site. We had a theme for every day and yesterday was day three and the theme was 'something yummy' - well Sandra knew I am a CHOCOHOLIC so she created this cool card box. Inside are a list of the 'rules of chocolate' which I have typed out below - they are all PERFECT!! You would be surprised that the chocolate is currently in my fridge due to the hot weather (today it's 27oC here in Auckland with humidity ruining just below 100%!) and I haven't started on it - YET! lol tell me which one you like best!

here are the rules:

*1 if you've got melted chocolate on your hands then you're eating it too slowly!
*2 Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices, apricots & strawberries all count as fruit so eat as much as you want.
*3 Problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car? Solution: Eat it all in the parking lot
*4 Diet Tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It will take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less!
*5 a nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place - now isn't that handy!
*6 if you can't eat all of your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer, however - if you can't eat all of your chocolate at once there must be something wrong with you. Call your doctor!!
*7 if you eat an equal amount of dark chocolate and white chocolate, it's considered a balanced diet!
*8 exercise is a dirty word - every time you hear it wash your mouth out with chocolate!
*9 if not for chocolate there would be no need for control top pantyhose - an entire garment industry would be devastated - so eat more!
*10 there is no such organisation as Chocoholics Anonymous because no one wants to quit.
*11 put 'eat chocolate' at the top of your 'to do' list TODAY!! That way, you'll get at least one thing on your list done!!
*12 we aren't meant to deal with life alone - that's why God created chocolate - EAT HEARTY!!

gift tags

here is a pile of gift tags that I made to go on all the presents we are giving at Christmas. There are about 24 of them! I used Basic Black card stock and cut three cards from an A4 sheet. Folded them in half and embossed the front with the Petals-a-plenty Stampin' Up! Big Shot embossing folder. I then spritzed them with mainly silver but used some gold as well. I cut out the snow flakes with the Christmas die for the Big Shot and have coated them in Dazzling Diamonds and finshed with a stick on diamond (love these from Stampin' Up!). The stamp is from Season of Joy (stamped in Basic Black on Whisper White cards stock) and I used the scallop oval punch to punch it out. All very basic but effective I think. But I must say after making that many of them I got over them VERY quickly! lol

stamp sets for sale!

I still have a few stamp sets etc left from when the new Idea's Book and Catalogue came out in Spring. I can post to where ever and can accept cash (with collection only), bank transfer or credit card (Visa or Mastercard) so email me julia.leece@slingshot.co.nz if you can give one of these awesome sets a new home!

NAME WHERE FROM PRICE
All used to some degree (From IB & C 09-10 unless stated otherwise)
-Big Bold Birthday pg 42 $50 -
-Botanical Blooms IB & C 08-09 $20 -
-Occasionally pg 30 $40 -
-Spring Solitude IB & C 08-09 $20 -
-Party Punch IB & C 08-09 $20 -
-Good Friends pg 99 $35 -
-Frames with a Flourish pg 100 $60 -
-Be Happy IB & C 08-09 $25 -
New Items:
-Happy Moments - SAB 2010 $20
-Sweet Little Sentiments pg 18 $20
-Vintage Labels SAB 2010 $20
Designer Series Paper – unopened packets
Autumn Traditions Winter Mini 10 $10

reindeer noses

nothing us New Zealanders love more are Jaffa's!! These little orange candies with chocolate insides become even more special at Christmas as they turn into reindeer noses! These reindeer tubes are a fun gift to have for kids - of any ages. I used Soft Suede and the Owl punch to make the reindeer and the leaves from the bird punch for the antlers, one lot in Soft Suede and one in Chocolate Chip.

I hope you get to enjoy some of these red beauties some time during this holiday season!