These past few days, I have watched more daytime TV than could usually be considered healthy, thanks to a dose of shingles that started out in my right eyebrow and has made its was onto my eyelid as well as spreading its painful feelers across my forehead, temple and cheek.

Not to mention that its allowing me to do a very passable impression of the Elephant Man thanks to the swelling around my eye.

Yep, I’m smokin’ HOT right about now, let me tell you…

So I have been spending quite a bit of time inside, partly because I have been feeling so wretched and partly so as not to give nightmares to any small children that I might cross paths with on the street.

I thought it might be an ideal time to get on  here with some stamped creations that I made some time ago and have photographed, edited and all, just not managed to share.

This card was one that I made for a very special wedding back in January – one of the five weddings we went to between September last year and February this year (never have I been so very aware of a “wedding season” in my life..)

The gal getting married was someone I have known since she was about four years old and her dad used to coach my brother’s junior cricket team.  Her parents and mine are still the best of friends all these years later – wonderful people, all of them

With so many weddings to go to, I found myself with a go-to card design that I made for a couple of them, but for this one, I wanted to do something a bit different and special.

I started out (as I very often do) at the Clean and Simple Stamping blog and used this sketch as my starting point…

After changing the orientation, I set about deciding what to decorate my four squares with and hunted through  my stamp and embellishment collection for anything ‘”wedding-y”.

Here’s a closer look at the combination of elements I ended up with…

It was one of those times that I was happy to have a variety of embellishments on hand, as it was the little touches that finished if off I think.  Things like the Dazzling Diamonds glitter in the champagne glasses and the tiny heart-shaped clear button with a punched out Cherry Cobbler heart stuck on the top.

If you’d like more details on any of the products or techniques I’ve employed on this card, please don’t hestitate to get in touch.

And who knows, depending on what Brooke is up to these days on the Bold and the Beautiful, I may even be back later with more…  (Assuming that Brooke is still around that is – surely she’s not finished marrying every bloke on the show yet…?)

“Congrats Nat & Dave – Wedding card
Stamps: Cheers to You, Always, Simply Said, Occasional Greetings, Playful Pieces (L3 hostess), Basic Phrases
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, In-Color Patterns DSP (Blushing Bride)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: 1-1/4 and 1-3/8 Square Punches, 1-1/4 Circle Punch, Two Step Owl Punch (heart), Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Early Espresso Marker, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin Dimensionals

For the past few weeks of this school term, my big girl’s class has had a prac teacher helping out.

This is nothing unusual, as it’s the third in a series of lovely pracs they’ve had this year, and each time at the end of their classroom stint I have made them a little gift and a thank you card from Hannah.

The difference between this current one and the last two is that this one is…..a man!

Which in itself is not a problem, the issue arises when it comes time to create a suitably manly gift, because we all know that blokey stamping is just that little bit trickier to pull off than that of the more feminine variety.

Even my big girl is clued into this fact, as we were discussing the gift that I would make for him on the way to school the other day and she said simply “But he’s a boy, so that’s going to be hard”.

Bless her heart, she’s such a knowing little soul!

So thinking that yesterday was his last day in the classroom, much of my day was devoted to the task of first coming up with, and then actually creating said blokey gift.

For the last two prac teachers, I created boxes to package up some various blocks of Lindt chocolate, so I decided to keep with that theme – Lindt chocolate being nothing short of divine (and happily on sale at my supermarket this week!) – and went about my blokey box making.

And here it is…

The box closed and ready for giving

The box pops open after the tiny bit of double sided tape keeping it closed is released by pulling up slightly on the top of the box

The the top flips up to reveal the bounty within

And here are the three various Lindt blocks nestled inside!

And finally with the matching card

A significant chunk of time was spent staring at Tim’s work shirts trying to figure out how best to make a realistic looking collar, but I’m pleased to report that only a small strip of cardstock was ruined beyond redemption in the process of creating of the one you see here.

I love love love the Parisian Breeze Specialty DSP that I used in the project.  The colours are simply gorgeous and the weight is sturdy enough to make boxes and packaging for all sorts of occasions.

You will find this delicious cardstock in the Spring Mini catalogue, but not for much longer, as the mini finishes up at the end of this month, so be sure to contact me to stock up on your supply of Parisian Breeze while you still can!

The most exciting aspect of this gift for me..?

It turns out that Mr Clarke is with the class until the end of next week, so I am unexpectedly and happily an entire week ahead of schedule!

Even more than the achievement of making something blokey, is the fact that I am – albeit inadvertently – organised with time to spare!

Go me!!

“Chocolate box and card for Mr Clarke”
Stamps: Basic Phrases
Paper: Parisian Breeze specialty DSP, Blush Blossom, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: Gift cards & envelopes, Large and Small Oval Punches, Vintage brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Look, I’m sorry, I promise to extract this large buzzing bee from my bonnet very shortly, but I thought I’d give it one last crack based on some further comments on the last post (thanks Karen and Di!)

But before I show you the last effort, can I just say how much fun I’ve had watching the comments bounce around on the previous post!  You guys crack me up and make me enjoy this blogging process even more.

And I’ve loved your honesty, really I have!  I was talking to my friend Danneil on the phone this morning (*waving* Dan!) and she said that the original card didn’t really say “Christmas to” her, but she was too scared to say so in a comment lest the general commenting public flame her for it!

Of course she would have been perfectly fine to speak her mind and add her opinion to the conversation, so long as she was prepared to sleep with one eye open for a while, right?!

*KIDDING* of course!

Here we go, and I think this is my favourite of the lot…

You’ll notice that I’ve removed the glittery ‘pox’.  It bugged me, so it’s gone!

Other than that I used Kiwi Kiss as the base and Chocolate Chip behind the little accent piece, then in a last ditch attempt to try and Christmas-ify it, I pulled out the little bling centre from a small clear Rhinestone brad and stuck it to the top of the tree (leaf, whatever..!)

So I’m exhausted and may never use Trendy Trees again (yeah right!) but I like this one of all three the best and I’m closing the comments section just in case anybody makes a further suggestion.

No, I’m not really, but I am putting my fingers in my ears and saying “lalalalalala”!

So I took some of your advice from the comments on my last post and made some changes to my Trendy Trees Christmas card.

In fact, as it turns out, I took almost all of your advice…

I’m not sure what I think about it, so at the risk of my stampin’ confidence, I’m throwing it out there again…

And here are the original and the new side by side for purposes of comparion…

I cut the card to turn it into a 10.5 x 10.5cm one, enlarged the square of Kiwi Kiss behind the scalloped element and added a tab of Riding Hood Red striped ribbon.

For the baubles, I dotted around some of my Tombow Multi liquid glue and sprinkled on some Orange Fine Supernova Glitter to make the baubles sparkly.  I’m not sure that it doesn’t now look like the original “leaf” now has an unfortunate case of some kind of pox.  A sparkly pox, but a pox all the same.  Aunty Mair, can you look that one up for me…?!

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not too sure about this one.  I think it’s a bit too fussy for my tastes.

What do you say good visiting folk?  Is it a better attempt than the first, or do I really just need to put this down as a learning experience, step away from the tree and move on….?!

I am having rather a run of trying out different Christmas card ideas of late, and was excited with a bit of an ‘outside the square’ idea that I tried out the other day, using a very non-Christmas stamp set to make a Christmas card.

Trouble is, when I asked Tim what he thought of it he was less than enthusiastic…  Not that he is ever overly exhuberant when I ask him papercraft related questions, much as I’m not super-enthused when he asks me to “stand like this” so he can try out his latest karate moves, but I wanted some feedback about this card, so I made the mistake of asking for some…..

Me: What do you think, does this look like a Christmas card?
Tim: Hmmmm, not really….
Me: Why not, what’s wrong with it?!
Tim: It’s the leaf….
Me: That’s not a leaf, that’s a tree
Tim: Well I guess there’s your problem

At least he’s honest I guess, but I kinda liked it….!

So help me out people….  Could this pass as Christmassy, or do I change the greeting and just keep it as a standby non-Christmas card…?!

Your honest feedback would be appreciated…!

“Trendy Christmas card”
Stamps: Trendy Trees, Polka Dot, Basic Phrases
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Kraft
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Scallop Square Punch, 1-1/4″ Square Punch, 1-3/8″ Square Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Stampin’ Dimensionals