A little something for the table

I’m spending Christmas Day at my Aunt’s place and I thought a little ’something’ for the table would be nice.  I was advised that the “theme” for the table was burgundy, white & gold.  Now that’s nice & easy ~ It could have been “Star Wars vs Spongebob Square Pants”, now that would have been difficult.  Also very unlikely .

So here’s what I have come up with ~

They are those wonderfully easy no-stick triangle boxes that are a cinch to make. You can make them any size you like, as long as you start off with a rectangle.  If you head over to Split Coast Stampers, there is a tutorial here. I’ve then stamped some Poinsettias in Bravo Burgundy, then gold embossed stars and holly and tied off with some ribbons and bells (jingle bells of course!).  You can’t quite see the tags, but they are gold embossed on Burgundy cardstock with “Love”, “Hope” or “Peace”.  Those images are from a long retired Christmas set that I just love and just keep using again and again.  I won’t tell you what’s inside (’cause that will spoil the surprise!) but suffice to say, there’s Christmas goodies in there . Lucky I’ve left Santa standing guard!

Now to make up some bits for a Christmas party tomorrow . . Hmm what shall I do? 

Till then,

Michelle

Time to trim the tree

Here’s a very, very cute ornament that I have become addicted to . .well, addicted to making.

How cute are these? No need to answer as I think that they are SO cute and won’t hear a word against them. Can’t you just see a tree decked out with these?  Each wreath starts with 8 rectangles and after a bit of nifty folding you have an ornament. No adhesive at all!  I found the instructions on the internet an age ago, printed them out, put them in a safe place and now that I have just tried to Google them so that I conveniently link to them, I can’t find it for love nor money.  I will keep hunting and as soon as I find it again, I will update this and link to it (yes, I know, that’s what bookmarks are for!).  If I can’t, I promise I will do a tutorial for it. But don’t hold your breath, you may have the instruction in time for next Christmas, Okay? Here’s one hanging around in my garden, just waiting for the tree to go up . .  . .

While I remember, Stampin’ Up! are having an inventory clearance sale – check my Stampin’ Up! Website here for all the details, and there are some stamp sets available for up to 25% off – Only while stocks last – Quick! Go and have a look (and then contact me to place your order )

I better skedaddle and get some Christmas cards written and off in the post.

Till next time,

Michelle

Rubber Wonderland (A Christmas Carol)

RUBBER WONDERLAND

(Sing to Winter Wonderland)

Rubber calls…are you listening?

Glitter falls…bright and glistening.

We’re happy tonight, Our stamping’s so bright… Wading through a Rubber Wonderland.

In the craft room we can stamp a snow card, Send it on its way to a friend.

They’ll say did you make it? You’ll say “Yeah, man…and you can stamp one too, yes you can!”

Later on, we’ll conspire, As we sit, by the fire, To face unafraid, the mess that we made…

Wading through our Rubber Wonderland!

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

This is my type of carol! I hope you enjoyed it!   Here’s a couple of cards using my favourite deer from “Forest Friends” ( retired from the Spring Mini)

I’ve use the papers from the “I wish” scrapping pack and  couple of little stick-on diamantes for the guiding light on his nose and we’re done!

How are your christmas cards coming along? Nearly done? *wink* Mine will probably be finished for Easter!

Till next time,

Michelle

Take a scallop and make a flower

No, not one of those up there. . . . One of these . . . .

I’ve punched this out from some of the DSP from the “I Wish” scrappin’ kit . .*sigh* such lovely papers! Anyway, back to the scallop flower.  So you can see here that I have punched and sponged it . .so far, not a flower. Okay next step, lets snip between every second scallop . .

So just in case you’re not sure how to snip – there’s a picture up there.  Now don’t snip right to the centre, that just wouldn’t make a flower!

Now for the next step, you take a mouse mat, or the squishy mat from your SU ‘Mat Pack’ (or in my case here a handful of folded paper towel – the previous two options were not close to hand when I was taking the pictures . .sorry) and also a tool with a round end . . . in this case it’s my White Gel Pen.  There is a paper tole tool that if you have one would be perfect.  But I didn’t have one here, needless to say the pen worked just fine So you ‘rub’ the petals out from the centre and then ’swirl’ the pen around, till it all starts to ‘raise’ (like a sunflower looking towards the sun).

Next you flip it over and press the middle of it down . .

 (note to self, moisturise hands more often!)

Now all we need to do is pop a small circle in the centre, and voilà, we have a flower . .  Notice the difference between the snipped & smooshed one and the not-snipped-&-smooshed one? It adds a little bit more oomph to your flowers, don’t you think?

I then used this flower on a book mark that was part of a card. . . more about that later . . .

Till next time,

Michelle

PS – Only 18 more sleeps . . !

Keep It Simple . .

You had grand plans in July to make cards for all your loved ones, family and friends and now you’re thinking that perhaps you may have left it a little late for the grand production number that you had sketched out in your head.  Okay, now it’s time to spring into action to make something simple, stylish and Christmassy.  How’s this for an idea ~

It’s pretty simple, but it lets you know it’s Christmas.  I’ve cut Riding Hood Red A4 length-ways with the fold at the top (so when it’s hanging up on those Christmas card-string-things it’s the right way up and everyone can see it and go “ooooh” ). I’ve then stamped it with the wonderful-oh-how-I-love-it ’En Francais’ background stamp and sponged the edges. A strip of DS Riding Hood Red Paper (with 6 patterns on 12 sheets, both sides can be used and there will be some variety amongst your cards too!) and then a Rudolph from ‘Winter Post’ punched out with the 1⅜” circle punch and layered on a Kiwi Kiss Scallop-punched circle.  Stick it all down, pop it up on dimensionals and voilà! ~ you have a Christmas card.  Very easy to replicate mass-production style, if you so desire. Swap the colours over for Baja Breeze, add some twinkling Dazzling diamonds for another option.

Come and join me at the Endeavour Hills Neighbourhood centre this Saturday to Stamp-a-Stack of  Christmas cards (1-4pm) or at Chelsea Heights Community Centre on Sunday (1-3pm) to make a card with a difference – Contact me & let me know you’re coming and I’ll have a kit all ready for you.

Hope to see you there,

Michelle

It’s all blue for Christmas . .

 .  .with a touch of white and Kraft too.  I’m not normally a ‘winter-scene-on-your-christmas-card’ type of person.  It’s the middle of Summer in Australia at Christmas (and those of you that live here know that ), where  is the sense in having glistening trees, snowflakes and Robin Red Breast adorning your Christmas cards? I mean, really? Other than the fact that they look so darn festive.  The “Winter Post” set that I have used for these cards really tickled my fancy more so because of their ‘arty/old fashioned’ style rather than their “It’s-a-chilly-ice-skating-christmas” theme. So what do you think?

This was another card that we did at a recent Stamp a Stack and the girls loved it! Especially the curly label punch “Merry Christmas” . I’ve kept with the glistening snow theme and used some Dazzling Diamonds to glitz it up ~ except you can’t see it in this photo (trust me, it’s there . .and in my hair and on the dog and in the carpet and in my eyebrows ~ you get the idea!).  And here’s the another interpretation of the same theme – this time featuring Rudolph (or is it Dancer, Prancer or Blitzen?)

You can just see it in this photo, but there is significantly more glitter on this card than the previous one and the “Season’s Greetings” was white embossed to make it ‘pop’.  I think I’m lovin’ a wintery christmas theme!

Off to stamp some more ~ till next time,

Michelle

I’ve been stamping . . . stacks . .

The Stamp-a-Stack season is officially underway.  There have been 2 already at the Chelsea Heights Community Centre and the ‘regulars’ are well on the way to getting their Christmas cards done.  We do 10 cards in a session and I provide 4 (suggested designs), but they can be flipped and rotated in any which way, so we all end up with different cards and covered in glitter.  Here’s the first two suggested ideas:

These two are made out of the same components . . . . just arranged  and punched differently.  The double sided paper can be flipped so that each card can be different also.  The stamp set used was “Spolight on Christmas” with the Poinsettas being  punched out with the 5-petal punch and the “25 December”  fits inside the square scallop punch Goldilocks style ~ “just right”.

More stamp a stack cards to show off soon, so y’all come back now y’hear?

Michelle

Have I shown you this one yet . . ?

This is a card that I made for a friend for her 8th birthday.  We had a lovely day at Build-a-bear and then  ice-creams and cake . . .yummo!

I’ve used the Forest Friends stamp set and ‘Celebrate You’ from the Party Hearty set.  I thought the little rabbit peeping out from the foliage was just a little bit cute . . Now don’t ask me about the ribbon – -I have a huge box full of it and I have no idea where most of it came from! Unless it’s a Stampin’ Up! ribbon and buy them by the spool rather than the metre! 

I’ll have some stamp-a-stack goodies to show you soon, but till then ~ happy stamping,

Michelle

Just too cute Tuesday . .

I haven’t done one of these for a while, but I just couldn’t resist this one . .  Hope you like it too!

 Till next time,

Michelle

What happened to Ocotber?

I can’t believe that it’s suddenly November and I haven’t blogged for over a month. . . Sometimes life just gets a bit busy and some things have to be let loose . . . . . and as it seems the world doesn’t end if I don’t get around to blogging, it was the blog that missed out in October.

This is one of the reasons that I wasn’t blogging – I was in Western Australia – - and if you were enjoying this view from your bedroom, would you be inside on the computer? No, I didn’t think so!

The main reason I went way out west was to go to the wedding of a dear friend that I met half a lifetime ago, when we were girls in our early 20’s backpacking in Europe.  This is the card that I made for the happy couple.  The photo was taken with my phone about 5 minuets before I headed off to the wedding.  That’s my excuse for the poor quality! I used my favourite stamp set ~ “Always” ~ and ‘thumped’ it with my markers and then about 2 layers of clear embossing before cutting it out and mounting on Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant.  I really love the eyelet border punch to make the edges ‘frilly & pretty’. Not to mention the Hodgepodge Hardware and clear rhinestone. Yummy!

Time for some sleep now, but I shall return with other projects that kept me busy the last few weeks (hints: Christmas, Halloween and chocolate!)

Till next time,

Michelle