day nine and ten

we are getting there LOL Day nine was 'something to stamp' so I made Debbie her own mosaic background stamp. I had some spare wooden blocks and then cut up bits of the left over rubber you get when you mount your Stampin' Up! stamps. I have made a few of these over the years- I have a stripey zebra one, an open mosaic like this and a tight mosaic one.

Then day ten was 'something to post' so I made a simple card pack, using Garden Green, Not Quiet Navy, Cherry Cobbler. There where 4 cards with 4 matching envelops.

days seven and eight

Day seven was 'something wintery' so I gave this lovely little hotty shaped in the heart -perfect for having on the lap while you work away in your craft room during cold winter days!!

day eight was 'something pretty' so I gave Debbie this flower brooch. You may recognise it from the New Zealand Woman's Weekly craft page a few weeks back as it is the very same brooch. Nothing pretty that pink flowers!!

something to make and something to tie

day 5 was "something to make" so I made up a jar of 'sand art brownies' - these make a fabulous gift - just layer the ingredient's in the jar and attach the cooking instructions. Here is the recipe for them off an old website.

day six was "something to tie" and so I made a silk scarf. These are fun and so easy to do. Just use Stazon ink and they look sensational!!

remade chocolate boxes

for day three of our mid winter Christmas swap the theme was "something chocolatey"! (my favourite day! lol) SO I decided to remake the 'favourites' box. I pulled the original box and used it as a template to create the Pacific Point one. I had to use more than one sheet of 12x12 textured card to get all the pieces out. I used some acetate for the window and you can't really see but I ran that thru the BigShot with an embossing folder. Added a few decorations and a bow and it was done. The bow was one I taught over on Crafters Anonymous a few months ago.

Day for was "something smelly" and as I didn't have time to make EVERY gift I bought this beautiful lotion.

MID YEAR CHRISTMAS GIFT SWAPS

Last month I participated in a Mid Year Christmas gift swap - you get together 12 days of gifts following a theme for each day. I wanted to share some of the gifts I made for my swap partner Debbie Dawson. Day one was 'something to hang' so I made these little earrings by stamping the Sew Suite stamps in Black Stazon on shrinky dink plastic. Once they are dry you use a heat tool and watch them shrink before your very eyes - way cool!!

The stamp set has the 'buttons' stamp which was perfect for making the earrings complete as a gift.

Day 2 was 'something altered' so I had a tin I altered (not SU paper :( LOL)

I will go thru the other gifts over the next few days..

Tea Caddy

over on Crafters Anonymous we had another cool online class last night. The talented Anne Brignall taught us this caddy which I have made for tea but you can easy enough put anything in it! mmmm chocolate would be good!! hee hee

the round tab punch worked well to make tabs for the tea bags. You just put adhesive in a strip down the middle so it doesn't affect the tea bag when you pull the tag out like the two on display. Also you can still see what flavour the tea is (green tea with jasmine for these ones!)

what a great pressy this would make!.

If you would like more info about joining Crafters Anonymous email me on julia.leece@vodafone.co.nz

Back to crafting - YIPPEE!!!

and why not start with a card for a new born!! This card is for my old (not in the age sense! lol although she IS one year older exactly than me! hehe) neighbour Joyce's son and daughter-in-law who had their first baby last week. As you can guess it's a little girl (Bethani-Grace to be exact!) and I went with the button theme. I LOVE both the Button, Button stamp set ($62.95 wood mount, $49.95 clear mount for 17 stamps) and matching BigShot Sweet Buttons embosslit ($26.50) which creates the 3D buttons. I used DSP from the Subtle's pattern pack ($45.95 for 40 sheets double sided) to make my card base which works great as long as you layer some card stock on the inside as well as the out side like I have here with Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. I popped up the pink buttons with dimensionals to give them of the 3D look.

Since I had the embosslite out I did a few more colours - Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Pear Parfait. This time I didn't do any stamping of buttons but I did pop up the blue ones to give some depth. Here is a picture so you can see the effect the popped up ones give.

Also this time I used Bashful Blue card for my base and added the DSP from the same Subtles pattern pack. The little 'Welcome Baby" is a single stamp called Sweet Unlimited ($14.50) and is perfect for baby cards and other themed projects.

**all prices are in New Zealand dollars.