My sweet and lovely big girl turned seven at the end of May, and this year it was decided that we would head out with a gaggle of her equally sweet and lovely friends and catch a movie together by way of celebration.

The only trouble with that plan was that the movies that are suitable for kids are all screened at school holiday time, and May being smack in the middle of term left us without a single G-rated option.

Being the sweet, lovely and incredibly understanding seven year old that she is, Hannah was perfectly fine to delay the outing by several weeks, so next week we’re off to see Toy Story 3 with aforementioned gaggle.

Being relatively small as gaggles go, I was able to cram a bit more detail and fun into the invitations than I would if she had been inviting a horde of her mates, and being that detail and fun is what I live for as far as papercraft is concerned, and I had a blast coming up with these….

The pinkest of pink personalised faux crocodile handbags!

Here’s what was inside…

The little ‘tickets’ are just about my favourite thing, mostly as I found a use for that funny ticket shaped die in the Lots of Tags set!  To make them, I found a promotional image online for Toy Story 3 and set up a Publisher document so that the ‘Admit One’ text and the image would line up perfectly to be cut out by the die.

The little lollipop shaped thingamy is a lip gloss, and then there’s the actual invitation itself.

The girls were all very excited to receive them and one of the lovely loves was still carrying hers around two days later when I saw her at school!

My next plan is for personalised goodie bags to actually take into the movie – I’m working on those already…

“Hannah’s 7th Birthday Invites”
Stamps: Vintage Vogue
Paper: Pixie Pink, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink: Pixie Pink, Versamark
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Pretties Kit, Melon Mambo Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Lots of Tags dies, Top Note Die, Jewelry Tag Punch, Sticky Strip, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I think I may have mentioned on a previous occasion or two that I have a folder on my computer named ‘to blog’.  This folder contains images of projects completed over a good long while that are stored there so that I know I need to put them up here for you all to see.

At this point they would more aptly fit in a folder entitled ‘what the heck are you waiting for?!’

If not for the fact that the computer doesn’t like anything other than letters and numbers in its folder names, I may well have had a go at changing it.

So anyway, I’ve decided that it’s time to clear the backlog, what with colour collections being renovated and only just over a month until stamps and all sorts start retiring and all.

So herewith, my first offering from the aforementioned folder.  Blow the dust off if you will

This is a card that I made for my sweet niece Izzy, who turned 11 in December last year.

See what I mean about backlog?

Moving on…

I just had to have a go at the Sweet Treat Cups when they first appeared back in the previous mini and LOVE how they jazz up  a card.

The fact that you can fill them with mini M&Ms or other small chocolatey treats is a definite bonus, particularly where an 11 year old girl is involved.

You may have noticed in the flower to the right that there is also a small protrusion…

See?!

When I first laid eyes on the Sweet Treat Cups, they reminded me instantly of a class that I saw offered by a co-worker at a local craft shop where I worked momentarily a few years ago between children.  It involved using objects found around the home in your crafting and card making.

Can anybody tell me what I’ve used here for the smaller flower?

Petal Pizzazz would have to be one of my absolute favourite and most-used stamp sets from this current catalogue and I always get nervous around this time – a month or so out from retiring lists appearing – that one like this will retire.

I REALLY hope it sticks around and heads will not have to roll.

I’m just sayin’…..

As it turns out my nephew, Izzy’s little brother Harry has his birthday exactly a week before his big sis, so he got a Sweet Treat Cup on his card too.

No girly flowers here though….

…just a rocket!

This idea came from my super-clever and delightful sis-in-law Janny who is part of my stampin’ team.

She came up with the oh-so-awesome idea to fill the STC with blue and green mini M&Ms, thereby creating Earth for the rocket to blast off from.

Is this not the coolest idea for a boy card you’ve ever seen?!

Whether or not Harry paused to appreciate the artistry and inventiveness of this idea prior to tearing it apart to get to the M&Ms, I can’t honestly recall, but one can remain hopeful.

In fact, for both of the cards, I installed a handy little flap behind the STC using a scrap of cardstock and the slit punch so that getting at the contents doesn’t require complete annihilation of the card itself…

Again, whether or not Harry noticed this thoughtful inclusion is another thing entirely.  Let’s just say its a good thing he’s my favourite nephew

The Sweet Treat Cups are perfectly designed to work with the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, both of which are available in the current Autumn/Winter mini catalogue.

If you’d like to grab some of these to have a play with for yourself, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

“Izzy’s Sweet Treat Flowers”
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Short & Sweet
Paper: Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Eyelet Border, Word Window, 1/2″ & 1-3/4″ Circle Punches; Regal Rose 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Harry’s Sweet Treat Rocket”
Stamps: Pun Fun, Big Bold Birthday, Season of Joy (stars)
Paper: Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Night of Navy, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy
Accessories: Scallop Border, Word Window $ 1-3/4″ Circle Punches; Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week over at Just Add Ink, there’s a sketch challenge for you to try!

At first I was very challenged by this challenge as the sketch doesn’t have a great amount of detail, but as I played around with ideas, including a fairly ‘out there’ colour scheme, I ended up loving the result.

Here’s the sketch…

And here’s what I did with it…

In the end I stuck fairly faithfully to the sketch design, using a hunk of ribbon for the wide element across the top and adding my own touch of a greeting in the bottom right.

And did I not mention that the colour combination was a bit mad?!  I can’t tell you where it originated, other than the depths of my brain.  I just started pulling out some colours and spreading them out on my desk.  I ended up using no less than six of them, plus white, in the final project.

I had a particular someone in mind as I made this card and also had some gift packaging to do to go along with it, so in keeping with the colour scheme and overall design, I made a custom gift box:

I’m not going to tell you what’s inside or who it’s for as it should be due to arrive at its destination some time today and I have no wish to spoil the surprise in case the recipient should be checking in.

Here are the box and card together…

Very floral and rather bright and busy, but hopefully it will do the job of bringing some much deserved sunshine via the mailbox of a lovely friend of mine today

Head on over to Just Add Ink to check out the rest of the Design Team’s take on this sketch and have a play along yourself!

“Just Add Ink #15 – Sketch and Gift Box”
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Sweet Little Sentiments
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip,
Accessories: 1″ Double Stitched Chocolate Chip Grosgrain; Small, Large and Scallop Oval Punches; 1/2″, 3/4″ and Scallop Circle Punches; Corner Rounder Punch; Small Star Punch; Rich Regals brads; Stampin’ Dimensionals

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be well on my way to Dillon Bay on the south coast of WA, and with any luck I won’t have flung many Freddo Frogs out of the window yet.

Huh?

Just a little side note before I get to today’s project…  A dear friend of my Aunty Mary (*waving* Aunty Mair and Sal!) has told me that the way she used to get through long car trips with her then three small boys, was to have a packet of Freddo Frogs along for the ride.

Every time there was a sniff of misbehaviour, a Freddo went out the car window and at the end of the trip, any that were left were shared out between the boys.

You can bet they didn’t take long to pull their heads in and behave, as would any youngster with the prospect at staring at the bottom of an empty bag of Freddos at the end of a long car trip…

I love that story!

Anyway, moving on to today’s project, a Wild Card from the gals at Just Add Ink.

The rules are, there ain’t no rules (name that movie), and I found myself completely devoid of ideas and a starting point.

I kinda like guidelines and starting points.

What I ended up with was this…

Being new to the world of the die-cutting machine, I was excited and amazed to discover that they cut all manner of materials, including, well…material!

I have a stash of gorgeous fabrics from my gorgeous and talented quilting mum-in-law, so I grabbed a co-ordinating handful of fabrics and got busy with my Big Shot!

Then I got busy looking up how to blanket stitch on YouTube, as it’s been a few years since I tried my hand at sewing and the process of stitching around the edge of applique had momentarily escaped me.

After I figured it out, I got stuck into it, then in a panic, emailed the Just Add Ink girls to see if I could submit another Easter project as my entry this week as I couldn’t see how I was going to get through all the flippin’ stitching in time for the deadline!

After a hefty stint on the couch, hunched over my fabric like a woman double my age, I got it done, then had my big girl out on the front porch at sparrow fart  this morning  modelling for the photo.

I think the half-closed eyes kind of give away that she had just woken up, plus if you look closely, you might even detect some sleep in the corner of her left eye.

Eye boogers, my small girl likes to call those.  She’s all class.

Here’s a close up of the stitched panel…

I’m happy (and slightly disbelieving) to report that the t-shirt has even made it through the wash with the stitched panel intact, so that’s good news.

If you have a Big Shot and a selection of dies, I encourage you to raid your fabric stash and have a go at this.  It’s FUN!

If you don’t have a Big Shot, I highly recommend that you get one, which by happy coincidence I can help you with

If you’d like any further information on the Big Shot and what it can do, or if you’d like to own one for yourself, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

“Sweet Heart Top Note T-shirt”
Stamps: None
Paper: Nope
Ink: None of that either…
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Die, Sizzlits Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies, assorted fabric and embroidery thread

We’re headed off to the south coast of WA for a few days of beach walking, chocolate eating, egg hunting and general chilling out and I’m SO very looking forward to the break, but before we head off, I just wanted to pop in quickly to share this little Easter gift that I made for Hannah’s lovely teacher Mrs Bolton.

I found some Easter eggs that were Pink Pirouette and Baja Breeze recently, so I grabbed a pack of each and thought I would create the gift around those colours.

I had no idea if the chocolate was any good at the time, but have taste-tested the leftovers and am happy to report that they taste just fine

You can’t really see inside the box, and I forgot to take pictures during the process, but I punched out eight 1″ circles for the eggs to sit in and popped that in the bottom of the box so that they would sit nice and straight and not roll around in there!

The lid was made out of Window Sheet rolled in the Scribble Jumbo Wheel using White StazOn ink.  It was my first foray into White StazOn and I am an instant convert!  I love the way it looks so pretty and dries so instantly on something as non-porous as plastic!

Here’s a close up of the little tag…

Right, I’m off to pack and get an early night before we head off in the morning.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe Easter and I’ll see you all in a few days!

“Happy Easter Mrs Bolton!”
Stamps: Occasionally, Scribble Jumbo SA Wheel
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Baja Breeze Patterns DSP, Window Sheet
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, White StazOn
Accessories: Small Tag Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Double Rectangle Punch, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Baja Breeze 1″ Stitched Gorgrain, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I would announce sweet Grace herself, but it would be rather overdue an announcement, considering that she was born in late August last year and is likely polishing her walking skills and most definitely up to eating solids as we speak.

Yes, I am that far behind in my blogging, who wants to know…?

Grace is the most delightful angel of a dear friend of mine that I have known since school days.  When she was born, I offered to make the birth announcements as a gift because I thought it would be a useful gift and also, quite happily,  gave me a fabulous excuse to dabble in the digital world that I love so much!

Of course a gift is not a gift unless it is packaged and embellished within an inch of its life, and this was no exception.

I made a little flat-ish box to sit the stack of announcements in, then wrapped the box in an overlapping layer of vellum, tying on a sweet little tag with lashings of Regal Rose grosgrain.

Here you can see a tiny peek of the box within, and a tiny peek of the princess herself, delicious little girl that she is

The flower on the tag is from Hello Again – a gorgeous little stamp set from the Summer Mini that has loads of possibilities, particularly as there are four other equally lovely stamps that make up the set.

I have used it to death these past few months and it looks equally good in soft, pastel colours as it is above, or in brighter colours like the following card that we made in one of the workshops I held here at home last month.

So while you’re patiently waiting in the queue for Framed with Love from the previous post, you might want to consider adding Hello Again to your list.  At $21.95, it’s a serious bargain, it has a matching Stampin’ Around wheel in Retro Remix,  and there are no guarantees that it will pop up again when the new Idea Book & Catalogue hits in September.

If I didn’t own it already, I know what I’d be doing

“Grace’s Birth Announcements”
Stamps: Hello Again, Nursery Necessities
Paper: Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Ink: Sage Shadow, Regal Rose, So Saffron
Accessories: Regal Rose 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Wide Oval Punch, Linen Thread

“Bright Hello Card”
Stamps: Hello Again
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Pixie Pink, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Green Galore, Pixie Pink & Summer Sun Stampin’ Write Markers, Scallop Square Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

The title of my post refers to the fact that I have so much happening at the moment, I can barely see straight and am a week overdue with my Just Add Ink Design Team commitments as a result!!

Aarghhhh!

I have created the projects, it’s just the time to post them here that has eluded me since last week, so I have popped in just now to post two projects (the second one in the post following) and then will head back to my lengthy to-do list…!

So last week the challenge was Just Add Easter, which was a perfectly timely theme.  The challenge has closed, but if you head over to the JAI blog, you will be able to see all of the Design Team projects, plus a vast listing of over 50 entries received for the challenge!  The winning entries  are also posted –>HERE<–

As for my project, this is it….

This is what the classmates of my big girl will be getting for Easter in a couple of weeks’ time

I like to make up little things for the kids in the class on special occasions, although with my small girl starting kindergarten next year, the number of goodies required will double to 60, which will keep me busy, and up late, considering that I always seem to end up finishing things off some time after midnight on the day before the occasion in question….

Does anybody else do that?

Anyway, I chose individually wrapped mini mentos as the treat, as there are quite a few kids with nut allergies in Hannah’s class so I wanted to steer clear of chocolate just as a precaution.

Plus, it’s really just a token thing and I’d like the children to appreciate the artistry of the little tiny matchbook style covers and colourful, glittery Easter eggs on the front rather than the sugary goodness contained within.

YEAH RIGHT….!!

I still have a few to make to complete the batch for the whole class and also have something in mind for her lovely teacher as well

Check back shortly (unless I get horribly sidetracked, which is always a distinct possibility) for my next post – Just Add Ink #9!

Just Add Ink Challenge #8 – Just Add Easter!
Stamps: None
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Tea Party DSP
Ink: None
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Fine Supernova Glitter, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Hopefully it will be the first of many, but if the extended hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing, software-swapping, massive learning-curve(ing) experience that was my day today is anything to go by, I’m not sure that I can promise anything at this stage!

It is way past the time that I prefer to be long asleep these days, but having spent pretty much all day – most of it in pyjamas – trying first to start up and use the most frustrating piece of computer software I have ever known (I had higher hopes for you Adobe…), then finding what seems at this stage to be a much better editing option (yay for you, Sony!), then spending the rest of the day nutting out exactly how to edit the footage that I recorded yesterday, there is no way on God’s green earth that I’m going to end this day before I have  shared the fruits of my extremely laborious labour.

So here it is – my first attempt at a video tutorial.

Please excuse the various part of the video where it appears that I have lost the ability to speak English.  I’m sure I will get used to chatting to a camera that is hovering above my right ear if I do it a bit more often.

Oh, and please also excuse my head that keeps popping into the frame at the bottom left.  You’re just lucky it’s out of focus, or you’d be subjected to the patch of grey hairs that I have right there.

Ok, I’ll shut up now (can you tell I’m a bit nervous…..?!)

I don’t currently have the capacity to upload in HD, so apologies for the quality being not so great.  It’s another thing I hope to rectify if indeed I am able to make some more tutorial videos.

Right, I’m done!

Thanks for visiting (and watching if you hung around for the show!)  I’d love to hear any feedback that you might have on my first video effort

Yesterday I mentioned how much I love the For Everything stamp set from the Summer Mini catalogue, and went so far as to say it was my current favourite stamp set.

A bold statement for someone with a large and growing collection of stamp sets, but a true statement nonetheless.

I also mentioned that I would show you another baby project using this very stamp set, so here it is.

Baby Nadia is the new little sister of one of my big girl’s classmates, and she was born towards the end of the school year last year.

The whole project was inspired by the actual gift inside the box – a delightful little outfit from Target that you can see when the box is opened…

How I love tiny girlie clothes, and those frilly little knickers – TOO cute!!

I had LOADS of fun putting this gift together as the matchy-matchy thing just gladdens my heart, and of course Stampin’ Up! does matchy-matchy oh so well

For the card, I started with a piece of Watercolour Paper and used the same technique I mentioned in my previous post – stamping first, then going over the image with an Aquapainter.  Being watercolour paper, the images don’t need a lot of coaxing to get all blurry and undefined, so less is definitely more when you’re Aquapainting, unless you want a blurry smudge in the middle of your paper.

At least it would be a colourful blurry smudge, but it wasn’t the look I was going for, so I took care not to over-squeeze the barrel of the Aquapainter as I went.

I used the same colours for the box, then made a little tag to match…

The scalloped edge of the tag is one of my favourite features and is achieved by first punching a length of cardstock with the Scallop Edge Punch, then feeding it through the Crimper.

Then you take the length of crimped scalloped cardstock and pinch and squeeze the flat, un-scalloped side together, concertina style, until the cardstock starts to bend around into a circular, or in this case, oval shape.

Once I had the shape I wanted, I stuck the scalloped edge to the back of the punched out Wide Oval that I had already stamped with images to match the card.  Then I neatened it up by sticking another Wide Oval at the back to cover the edges of the scalloped border.

Not sure that any of that makes sense, but if you’d like a clearer explanation, a tutorial, or maybe even a video tutorial now that I have the capacity and machinery to create one of those, just shout!

“A Gift for Baby Nadia”
Stamps: For Everything, Polka Dot, Nursery Necessities
Paper: Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Scallop Edge, Eyelet Border, Scallop Oval, Large Oval and Wide Oval Punches; Crimper, Certainly Celery Wide Grosgrain, Two-way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter; Barely Banana, Regal Rose and Rose Red Markers; Aquapainter, Linen Thread, Button Bouquet, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Ok, so we’re still walking in that park, but this time I have company!

Janny is my gorgeous sister-in-law and one of my favourite people in the world.  She’s the sister I never had and I couldn’t have scored a better sister-in-law even if I had gone out and hand-picked Tim’s brother’s wife myself

Janny is the one who introduced me to the wonders of scrapbooking a good many years ago when we thought all that it involved was a triangle and a strip of patterned paper and some photo’s.

And we were mesmerised then!

Janny is also one heck of an amazing stamper and earlier in the year (after no less than three years of nudging and prodding on my behalf) she joined my team of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators.

Of course she is wonderful at it, loves it to bits and wonders why it took her so long.

Janny, sweetie-pie, we all do….!

Here’s an example of the gorgeous stuff she makes – a gift she gave me earlier in the year to thank me for encouraging her to give demonstrating a go…

To the left is a bundle of yummy smelling soap from Lush that I still haven’t had the heart to unwrap, but it sits on my display shelf in my craft room here looking all pretty and still smelling delicious, so I figure it can stay wrapped!

The card features one of Janny’s specialties – exquisite cutting out…

She has the patience and scissor-dexterity of nobody else I know and it amazes me every time I see one of her cards or scrapbooking layouts featuring her awesome cutting.

Janny recently started a blog where she shares her beautiful stamping with the world.  You can visit her —>HERE<— and leave her some comment love

I still have a couple of things to share featuring Spring Mini stuff and I’m going to see if I can get them up here by the end of the day.

I make no promises, but I do have a clean house, no washing and a tidy craft room (thank Nanny!!), so you never know your luck…!