cute

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008 So the Summer mini is current but I've hardly shown you anything from it... well that will have to change. I love just about all of the stamps sets in the new mini and combine them with the Sale-A-Bration offer in January/February and it's hard to go wrong buying stamps over the next two months.

This little one is from the set "Big on Spring" and this stamp in particular is why I bought the set. The card above is for a new dad at my husbands work so he requested a big card so his team can all write on it so it is actually A5 in size.

I added a teddy from the "Bundle of Joy" stamp set from the main catalogue and inside is a cute little image from an old set "Swell News" that I just love for baby cards.

Below is a much smaller card using the same stamp for my friends with their little Connor who is just so cute! Sorry about the weird colours the photo was taken at night so poor lighting! I used: blue bayou, soft sky and whisper white cardstock, stazon ink, rose red and ballet blue markers, dimensionals, corner rounder punch

lollies!

My very clever downline Sam made me this delicious looking lolly container for my classes. How clever is she? It is an empty Moccona coffee jar and she has used DS paper from the Petals and Paisley pack, chipboard, ribbon and the Big Deal alphabet to make it irresistible to my class goers. So if you are coming to any classes in the future look out for it! Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008 I wish I could show it to you in person but I'll have to take three shots to show you all the way around!

Boxes on Boxing Day

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008 Seeing as it's boxing day today I thought it appropriate to show two boxes I made from the 1 sheet of 12 x 12" ds paper. I'll be doing more of these at up coming classes or to find out how I make them email me.

excuse the plural!

only!!!!!

team Christmas party

Earlier in the month we had our team Christmas dinner at Ruth's place and she made her place look so lovely with her huge table set with these cute boxes filled with her delicious cherry slice,

crackers and a lucky door prize which I won!!! This amazing box, which would have been a good enough prize on it's own but.. it was filled with yummy skin care products which after being away from teaching full time now for 5 years I have finally run out of... I miss my end of year gifts :( - they were awesome! So these are already in the bathroom being used.

But not only that there were chocs on top - yummo Ferrero Rochers ( I did a pretty good job of hiding the fact that 3 were already gone when I took the photo, now more have gone ;) and I am planning on using the container for a future project so watch this space...

We did Secret Santa and I received some ribbon from the Summer mini, Old Olive Prints DS paper and this cute cupcake soap - how sweet is it?

We had such a delicious dinner, I ran some games, we relaxed and had fun! Marelle was so kind and gave us all a gift in this cute matchbox she made

of some Styled Silver Hodgepodge and double stitched ribbon. How lucky are we!

If you've ever been tempted to join SU! then I'm sure this tempts you even more!! If you are keen to join up you will become part of a fantastic team that is made up of many types of demonstrators. Some who run a business, others who do it purely for hobby and others who mix a bit of both but best of all they are all wonderful people. January and February are a great time to join - so email me to ask more!

just...

greetings

Here are some gorgeous card I've been given for Christmas.. This one's from Rosanne who doesn't have a blog but makes beautiful things like this one... This one is from my downline Sam isn't it stunning, using last years incolors and paper.... and from my up-upline Marelle, using non-traditional colours, gorgeous isn't it... I have been given some other absolutely fantastic handmade cards but I can't show them as they have photos on them and I don't have their permission but thank you so much Suzanne and Karen they are wonderful! I had a good laugh too - very cute!

spotlight on Christmas

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008 These cards were inspired by one of my fellow Stampers Anonymous team mates Liam using the hostess set In the Spotlight - it was the first hostess stamp set to catch my eye in the catalogue and I think it's just gorgeous. The sentiment comes from the Occasional Greetings set which i love too! I've gone with all InColors here - Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou and Soft Sky and having the 5 petal flower punch makes it so easy to make the bauble.

so close now

older decorations

These are some decorations I've made in years past of my boys and cats for the Christmas tree. I plan on doing at least one a year so that in years to come our tree will be filled with images of past Christmases. This is the reverse side - pre Stampin' Up of course!

This was Jake's first Christmas he was (and is still) so cute!

We've done our photos this year but I've yet to print them so will probably work on it after Christmas for next years tree. I will have to do two this year as the best shots are in pairs - Jakey with Callie and Toby with Nala.

less than a week now!

dashing box

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008 Unfortunately the colours went a bit wild in these photos but this is Dashing ds paper made into a lid for a base made from acetate. The wonderful sticky strip holds it all together and my corner rounder was used for, hopefully, the last time as a scallop edge maker as I soon will be getting the scallop edge punch now available in the Summer mini - my rounder can rest up for a bit! This little box of chocs was pressie for my 2 year olds Sunday School teacher - she's a gem!

one week to go!

our nativity

A couple of years ago I admired my sister-in-laws knitted nativity scene and I asked where she got it from - "Margie!" my very crafty aunty of course! My mad Aunty Marg has crafted her whole life and made everyone beautifully decorated cakes for 21sts and weddings, special 'tick tock' aprons for the fellows at the BBQ, a hilarious dinner suit style bib for my littlest among other things so I was thrilled when the following year I was presented with a bag bulging with colourful woollen things to my great surprise. "Here, now this is Christmas, Birthdays and everything rolled into one- ha ha!" she said. And I just love it ! I love the shepherds pipe cleaner crooks and their earthy colours - perhaps their clothes really would have been made of wool- very authentic!

The wise guys look pretty dashing in their regal colours.

I can't imagine doing the little gifts - such detail.

How cute is the manger and Jesus - not sure it would have been quite this comfy!

I am yet to have finished the manger for them to go in as it needs to be pretty special to compliment these guys so at the moment they look pretty sparse but I guess the first Christmas was a fairly low key event - aside from the angels and the huge shining star that is! hmmmm... angels and stars... better mention them to Margie actually it think she'll kill me if I did!

counting down....

our gingerbread house

Yesterday Tobes and I decorated our gingerbread house while Jakey ate any lolly that wasn't being stuck onto the house. Every year our church holds a Gingerbread house afternoon but this year we couldn't go as it was the same date as my parents 50th wedding anniversary lunch. We did, however, manage to get a kit and yesterday before Carols in the Park we spent a couple of hours decorating it ready for Wednesday night when our Biblestudy group is having a Christmas 'minis' dinner eg mini hot dogs, mini pizzas, mini spring rolls, mini pavs.. basically any food in it's miniature form. I'm nominating this as a mini as it's a mini house really, not that you could ever eat a real sized ginger bread house - actually I have seen a photo of one in Canada - crazy! Note the lolly ring wreath on the door and the caramel chimney with smoke puffing out on the roof. At the other end of the house below is the tree with presents underneath it, with bows on them! I always attempt to do a snow man who usually turns out like this! I really should do him first when the icing is not so runny - maybe one year I'll learn. The eyes are 100 and 1000s, the nose a broken piece of M&M and the scarf a snake sliced in strips. My icicles are improving year by year however I don't think I'll ever achieve the quality that I saw two Korean male students do one year! amazing! a pretty (delicious) flower and log pile So much fun - if you've never done one it's worth a go - if you live near Epping in Sydney, let me know if you'd like to come next year! Seriously you're whacking lollies on a house how wrong can you go?!

did you know there are only ....

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008

This is (yes another) KaiserCraft product. Such a cute little countdown tree which I made ages ago - very organised but not organised enough to blog it til now! I used Dashing ds paper, just about all of the circle punches and embossed two chipboard stars with gold ink and powder then used sandwiches of three dimensionals to give enough room between them so they slide over the top of the tree. The top of my 'd' got wet so I'll have to fix that at some stage but not right now - other things to do!

little flower add on

Images © Stampin' Up!® 1990-2008

This is a little flower adornment you could add to any gift or even use as a focus on a card or layout. It's made using the scallop circle punch, two 1 3/8" circles punched, cut and folded and a flower from the Pretties Kit. The stem of the flower pokes through a small hole punched by the 1/16" hole punch and that can be wrapped around whatever you're adding it to. This one is made using the Holiday Harmony designer paper. I started with this idea for paper daises from the Kaisercraft website and ended up with this.