Christmas Marathon

Hello Everyone. These pictures show my results from yesterday's Christmas Marathon. There were only 4 of us including Kate, who owns the Sister Act shop, but we had a great time. I got 15 cards completed which I was well pleased with. Sharlene got her 10 Christmas crackers made and I wanted to invite myself round to her place so that I could have one!!! Amanda made excellent progress on her Kaisercraft Advent Calender and Kate, in between serving customers, got started on some beautiful labels which she is either going to use on gifts or on her handmade Christmas crackers. In the afternoon we had a wee glass of bubbles accompanied by Christmas cake, grapes and HUGE strawberries. All very civilised and I thourighly enjoyed myself. Thanks Kate for a great idea and making it special with the Christmas goodies. I can recommend it to you all. It means you work on your Christmas projects without the usual interuptions that always happen at home. Get going ladies and organise your own Christmas Marathon. I hope ours becomes an annual fixture!! I'm off to have a SKYPE link up with an old schoolfriend in the UK now so I'll say goodnight and thanks for looking.

80 Years Young

No not me!!! LOL Our good friend who lives just across the road turns 80 on the weekend. She always tells me that she just missed out on being a witch by one day. She is one of the most interesting women I have ever met. She is the perfect picture of a Gran (which is what her grandchildren call her) Five foot nothing, rather round with silver white hair and round spectacles. There is never a time spent in her company when I fail to learn something new. She is a mine of interesting information. She would do anything for anyone if she possibly could and I hope she has a wonderful weekend with her family and friends. As you will have guessed by now this card is for her and comes with all our love and wishes for good health to enable her to enjoy a few more years yet. Happy birthday Jean.

Rachel's Yummy Blog Candy

Hi Everyone tonight's post is a little different.  Just look at ALL this yummy blog candy being given by young Rachel Critchley of Critchley Creations (see my list of blogs to visit)  One of the conditions of entry is to post a picture of the candy somewhere on my blog.  I don't know how to do it so that it appears down the side so I did the only way I know how - make it into a post.  Rachel is a young lassie in the UK who doesn't have the best of health and yet is always bright and cheerful not to mention EXTREMELY talented craft wise.  Go take a look at her work, it's great.  You too can enter for the blog candy but I'm afraid you won't win because I have MY name on it LOL!!!

Get ready for class

Hi Everyone. Well it hasn't rained (yet) this holiday weekend here in Upper Hutt. It hasn't been exactly the great weather they had promised us either but hey be thankful right? I have managed quite a bit of time in the garden and this afternoon the sun DID shine - BONUS!!! Anyway as a result of the gardening I haven't done much in the way of crafting. I have however been getting supplies assembled for my next classes so I thought I would photograph them and show you. These goodies are for the Thingy-Ma-Jig box. It's amazing just how much work goes into preparing a class. The instructions to write, the project to photograph, the materials to measure and cut and assemble all the materials. I then pre-prepare elements so that people are not sitting watching me apply DST etc. You now the thing - . . . and here's one I prepared earlier. They look quite good all together in the photo so I'm glad I did it now. Hope your weekend is going well and all you workers here in NZ enjoy your day off tomorrow.

Tea Light Candle Gift

Hi Everyone I have just finished working on my first tea light candle card and I am pretty chuffed with it. Lots of ideas in Blog Land to get you started. I wasn't hopeful of getting lovely scented tea lights here in Upper Hutt but I was very pleasantly surprised this afternoon when I went to the $2 Shop where they had several different flavours. I chose green tea for this particular gift but also got strawberry, rose and lavender for future use. This gift is for a friend's birthday this weekend. You will see from the photos that the insert pulls out and can be used as a bookmark. It was a lovely project to make and there's the added bonus of the perfume from the candles. I had no idea green tea smelt so nice!! My drinks certainly don't smell like that! I hope Lianne likes her gift. Time for me to brush my teeth and jump into bed so I'll say 'night 'night, sleep tight and I'll talk to you tomorrow maybe.

Second Christmas Candle

Candle number two as promised.

Christmas Candles

Good Morning All. Something a little different I have been meaning to play with for a while and yesterday I was just in the right mood to try it out. I had been a bit apprehensive but now I've done it I wonder why because it is such a simple technique and a lot of fun too. The photo of the holly section is blurry and I apologise for that. I took umpteen photos and they were all blurry - some more than others so this is the best one of the bunch. I have done two candles but for some reason only the 4 photos of the the first candle have come through so I will blog the other one immediately after this one. Hope you like the idea and thanks for looking.

nOel . . . again

Hi again Everyone I had a great group of ladies in class this morning and we had a lot of laughs as we constructed our two different Stepped Cards. Next class is in three weeks which is just as well as I still have to type up instructions!!! Anyway, onto tonight's post. It's another version with the nOel stamp and I think it is just such a neat technique. I saw Barbara Gray demo it on TV last weekend. It is sooo clever to kind of continue the hillside through the hole in the O and then to 'frame' the nOel with a deckle line which makes it look like it is a completely separate piece of card mounted on top of the background piece!!! Clever or what? Right I'm off to have my hot chocolate drink (made by my lovely husband. That's my treat every night about this time. He also brings me a drink in bed every morning! How lucky am I?) and then I'm getting out the laptop and typing up some class instructions. Bye and thanks for looking.

Twas The Night Before . . . . .

Hi Everyone and welcome to the weekend especially those of you who get up early and go out to work all week. I hope the weather is fine so that we can all get out and enjoy life in the fresh air. I am teaching tomorrow morning at Sister Act on the beautiful Kapiti Coast here in New Zealand. We are going to make two different Stepped Cards both with a Christmas theme. I am looking forward to it and I hope my ladies are too. I quickly made this Christmas card tonight so that I can show it to Kate (Sister Act owner) tomorrow. I used two Clarity Stamp images from the 'Twas the night before Christmas series. I think there ar 10 now in all in the series, each with a little bit of the classic poem and an illustration. I have five of them I think. There are two separate stamps here but because the stamps are so wonderfully clear, and the Clarity handles to mount the stamps on to are so wonderfully clear AND easy to hold it is easy to position the images EXACTLY where you want them. Hence this looks like just one image! A couple of people have told me they are having trouble leaving a comment on my Blog. Not sure what's going on. I tried a test comment myself this afternoon and it worked OK so I'm not sure if there is problem or not. I'm sorry if you've had trouble. I always look forward to comments left by people so it will be sad if they arn't getting through. Enjoy your weekend and thanks for taking the time to look.

Black and White Beauty

Hi Everyone. It's been another rather miserable day here today but at least it didn't rain - just gloomy. I had my swim and aquaerobics this morning and I walked with my friend Di this afternoon, even though it was a bit drizzly at times. So not too bad really. I got this card made after I came home. One of my favourite techniques - embossed background and my lady dressed in Angelina Fibre. It is a birthday card for a friend. October is a busy month for me with birthday cards. I keep trying to start Christmas cards but what with birthdays taking priority and class samples and instructions to prepare I am not making much progress. I am intending to have a go at a couple of ideas tonight. If I'm successful I'll let you know. Time to get tea on the go. Thanks for visiting.

Funky Fold Card

Hello all you Night Owls. It's late and I just thought I'd post this before I brush my teeth and jump into bed. It's quite cool here tonight so it will be nice to snuggle under the duvet. I found this Funky Fold project on my friend Sheila's Blog (Manic Stamper) and she found it at Sue's, who found it at . . . . you know the story. Well whoever thought it up - Thank-you very much. I had fun tonight making it. The instructions and measurements were great. I am teaching Side and Centre Stepped Cards on Saturday and this kind of goes along the same lines. So many possibilities. This one is for a birthday but it would sure look good in Christmas colours with a poinsettia on the front. Well that's me done for today. 'Night 'night and sleep tight in my part of the world. Have a great day over the other side and thanks for looking.

Tilda

Hi again. I had a good day again today. Did some much needed work in the garden this morning (same as yesterday), went for our lunchtime swim and then made this card for our dear wee great niece this afternoon. It is another new stamp I bought on our UK travels. She is called Tilda and is made by Magnolia Stamps which I think is Swedish(??) Lots of you in the northern hemisphere will be familiar with Tilda. She is so cute and there are many, many Tilda and friends stamps available. I only have this one at the moment and today was the first time I have used it. I managed to catch the 5pm post collection so she is now on her way to the UK. I hope she arrives in time for Ruby's 3rd birthday on the 22nd of this month!! Time to serve up tea now. Thanks for stopping by again.

I'm Watching You

Hello Everyone. It sure is quiet around the house without Trent and Tayla giggling and chattering away. It takes me a few days to adjust after having them around. We had such fun! Anyway on with other things now. I have just finished this card which is for our youngest daughter's 38th on Monday. She hasn't seen this stamp as it is one I bought on our recent UK trip and have only just tried it out. It is one from a sheet of stamps called Alluring Ladies and thanks to the great team at The Stampman in Yorkshire UK for getting it for me and for some ideas on using it. It is such a good value sheet. I think there are about 25 stamps in all - all quite retro really and I love them. I have used 3Dimensional Magic on the eyeballs to give that 'wet' look. I like it. I hope she does too. Thanks for visiting tonight.

My Favourite Little People

Hello All. Here is the reason I have had no time for crafting in my own right for a while. Trent and Tayla have been with us for the last week and so I have been busy having outdoor fun (the weather has been gorgeous) during the day and helping them with their craft projects in the evenings. As usual we have had lots of fun and done some 'cool stuff' to quote T&T. We have made about a million 'shrinky dinks'. We have made some cool owl bookmarks shown to me by my friend Diane last weekend. We have made little notepads with pretty covers and Tayla has stuck jewels for Africa onto EVERYTHING she could think of. Today we went to the movies to see Despicable Me in 3D (Granddad came too!!) If you get the chance go to see it. Cool fun!!! and very funny at times. I'm sooooo glad I have T&T to take me to all their great movies!!! Last day for us tomorrow so we will have to think up something really special to finish up with. In the photos they are busy typing an e-mail to their Mum and Dad to accompany photos they were sending and the last one is Trent blowing a huge bubble mass in the bath this morning. I have just tucked them up in bed after our nightly card game of Happy Families and their ten minute read in bed before lights out. There is a fair bit of giggling going on in there but I'll hold off for a few minutes as they are pretty tired so they'll probably just crash any minute now. I hope to be back in action next week. In the meantime have a great weekend everyone and I hope the sunshines wherever you are in the world. Thanks for being patient and still looking at my Blog.