General

Well it’s over and I may be a big girly sook, but I’m VERY glad to have that particular experience behind me!  Wow, who knew that four little (ok, fairly large and troublesome as it turns out) teeth being removed could be so nasty?!  A week and a bit on, my chipmunk cheeks have thankfully gone (I looked like I was storing nuts for several winters for a while there!), the bruising has gone too and there are just a few stitches left to dissolve.  My chin, lower lip and bottom teeth & gums are still numb though due to the nerves being disturbed in the process of extraction but hopefully the feeling will come back relatively soon…..

The upside of the whole process was that I got to spend a few days absolutely BLUDGING at my folks’ place!  It was decided that it would be easier for Tim to just have the girls to look after rather than all 3 of us, so I was treated to some mummy love (the BEST kind!) and did four fifths of bugger all (to quote my Aunty Mair :)) for almost 5 days!  Actually I lie, I read an entire book, 3 or 4 magazines, watched 2 dvd’s and more television that I’ve ever watched in my LIFE before!  It was awesome and I’m trying to think of what other surgical procedures I might line myself up for so that I can go and do it all again!!

Tim was AMAZING in my absence and I came home to a tidy house, no washing in the laundry, dinner cooked and two poppets who had been perfect angels the entire time I was away.  I am one lucky girl

Thanks to those of you who popped in and left messages while I was away too - it was lovely to read them

So I thought I would put up a card or two, since cardmaking rather than oral surgery is in fact the main focus of my blog, so here is one that I made a few weeks ago (several times over in fact) as a thank you card for the girls in my team that arranged the stamping projects and demonstrated at our recent team day at the end of October..

It’s a technique called “faux poplin” achieved by feeding your stamped piece of cardstock through the crimper first in one direction, then turning it 90 degrees and putting it through again.  Here’s a closer shot…

I saw the technique somewhere months ago and filed it away in my head until I wanted to give it a go, but now of course I have no idea where I first saw it….  Splitcoast maybe..?!  Anybody know?!

Anyway, I was quite happy with the results and think that it’s a funky technique worthy of some exploration with different stamps and maybe even Designer Series Paper…hmmmm

“Faux Poplin Thanks!”
Stamps: Bud Basics, Short and Sweet
Paper: Rose Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Ink: Old Olive, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Certainly Celery thin grosgrain, Large and Small Oval Punches, Rich Regals brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I also made a baby card using this technique for Sarah-Jane who recently had her second sweet baby girl…

I haven’t used Little Pieces for ages, but thought that randomly stamped in pretty pastels would make for a very poplin-esque result

“Welcome Baby Ella!”
Stamps: Little Pieces, Short and Sweet
Paper: Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Whisper White
Ink: Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Soft Subtles brads

As the title of my post points out, it’s a little while since World Cardmaking Day now, but I still want to share the cards that my lovely lounge room full of ladies completed on the day (it’s the ladies that were lovely, not so much my lounge room…)

I wasn’t sure that I was even going to manage to hold a WCMD event, but I decided at the last minute to have a bit of a Christmas card making day and 8 lovely aforementioned ladies elected to join me for the festivities (*waving* ladies!!)

The cards that we made were very varied in style and design, some absolute cases from cards I had seen elsewhere (no need to mess with perfection I figured) and some that just kind of evolved by putting together different ideas I had seen.  Anyway, enough nattering, here they are….

This first one is almost an exact copy of one made by my wonderful friend and stampin’ team member, Tracey.  Stunning in its simplicity and highly mass produce-able (I think I may have made that word up!) this one was the favourite of the day among my guests

“Glitter Baubles”
Stamps: Occasional Greetings, So Swirly Jumbo wheel
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: 1″, 1-1/4″ and 1-3/8″ Circle Punches, Two way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Stampin’ Sponges, Brocade Blue Stampin’ Write Marker

This one used my current favourite Christmas set, Season of Joy.  I seem to always use the tree image from the set, so wanted to get some use out of the funky wording background and this was the result.

“In-colours of Joy!”
Stamps: Season of Joy
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla
Ink: River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky
Accessories: 3/4″ and 1/2″ Circle Punches, Silver brads, Wild Wasabi striped ribbon, White gel pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals

My much neglected Watercolor Wonder crayons were dusted off for this one.  They were perfect for the job of making a realistic looking tree.

“Lovely as a Christmas Tree”
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Paper: Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, Confetti Cream
Ink: None
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon

This card was my favourite of the day and may well be my own Christmas card design for this year, if I can manage to get all that watercolouring done!  I used some ideas that I had seen on the Hero Arts website.  I saw the white spots stamped onto Kraft here, and the placement of the stamped element here and combined the two ideas, tweaked it a bit and what you see above is the result!

“Fun & Fast Watercolour Tree”
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Polka Dot, Short & Sweet (20% off this month! See Specials page for details…)
Paper: Kraft, Ruby Red, Watercolour Paper
Ink: StazOn Black, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, So Saffron, More Mustard, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Going Grey, Whisper White
Accessories: Aquapainter, Old Olive Wide Grosgrain, Double Rectangle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, White Gel Pen

As well as making all four cards, I also had a teensy little gift for each of the ladies, in keeping with the Christmas theme…

These three are little perspex keyrings, customised with watercoloured images from Time Well Spent.

Then there were two little fridge magnets, with watercoloured images from Fun & Fast Notes.

And finally, I made three “big clippie” bookmarks using the flower from Big Pieces and a variety of circle punches.

The ladies drew numbers to work out who got what pressie, then the luckiest lady of the day (hi Meredith!) also won a door prize…

This little bag has been sitting on my “alterables” shelf since Brisbane convention in April!  After convention, we drove to Sea World on the Gold Coast and grabbed a quickie McDonalds dinner on the way home.  This little bag contained the packet of dressing and maybe even the plastic fork for the Caeaser Salad that I had (and in fact so did mum, so there is another bag just like this around somewhere…!)  Much to Tim’s horror, I saved the bags, knowing that I would be able to put them to great use some day!  He tried to chuck them out while I wasn’t looking, but I salvaged them and am very glad I did!  Now I hope to find where I might be able to purchase them new, as they make great little gift bags, but I don’t know that mass consumption of McDonald’s Ceaser Salads would be the sensible way of obtaining a bunch more!!

I‘m so very excited to be heading off on the Stampin’ Up! incentive trip in a few hours from now, so it will be next week before I post again, unless I can find an internet connection in between cocktails by the pool in Palm Cove!

I had grand plans to post a good many things before I went, but with some last minute workshops plus swaps to get done for the trip I didn’t get on here at all!  Something that I hope you will look forward to when I get back, along with some holiday happy snaps I’m sure

My mum is arriving shortly to take charge of my poppets - as well as being a talented stamper, she’s also beloved and very loving Nanny to my girls and will be spending the rest of the week here while Tim and I are on the trip.  Thanks so much Nanny, we love you LOADS!