It’s week two of school holidays over this way, and I would have to say that it’s been one of the most enjoyable school holidays I can remember.

Despite the fact that we have had a couple of overly crisp weeks in terms of weather, which was promptly followed by rain in large bucket loads, and a bit of a head cold on my part, we have have been enjoying several sleep ins, a bunch of pyjama days, loads of visiting, a number of play dates, a movie and large amounts of pottering at home.

The girls have been absolutely delightful, reveling in each others’ company and being quite honestly, completely delicious!

So I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this relaxed time, which hasn’t left a whole lot of room for blogging, so apologies for that

I have been stamping though, and have spent some time this week playing along with a number of challenges, hence the title of this post.

You may have noticed that the Design Team over at Just Add Ink has been expanded by about double, meaning that we only have to design fortnightly for the challenges.  We are free to play along in our off week though, and this week I decided to do exactly that – leaving it to the very last minute as is my standard OP, but anyway, here it is…

I especially wanted to play along with this one, as it involves Elegant Eggplant – a colour that I need as much practise with as I can get.

Despite needing practise though, I do tend to use Elegant Eggplant very much as a highlight rather than a feature colour, but at least it’s there!

I combined the colour challenge with a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog – a place that I head to on many an occasion when I’m in need of a fabulous yet simple layout

So there you have challenge number one!  Next up I’ll show you a card that I made up for a challenge on my team stamping blog, and later this week the next JAI challenge!

All this is after we head to the park tomorrow followed by dinner with my bestie and her gorgeous family.

It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it

“Just Add Ink #25″
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dot,
Paper: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red
Accessories: 1-3/8″, 1-1/4″ and 3/4″ Circle Punches, Rich Regals brads, Vintage brads, Elegant Eggplant 1/4″ Grosgrian Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

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

It’s been ages since I’ve been here and to be honest it’s been a refreshing little break, although I must apologise for not mentioning that I would be taking a little blogging hiatus.

I didn’t really plan to, but with Christmas, New Year and extended school holidays and everything that goes along with it, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying just hanging out and doing nothing in particular.

Except swimming.  Lots of swimming, plus discovering new parks with the girls and generally having a lovely summer!

You may have noticed that my banner is back to normal and I am dressed in my usual Cameo Coral attire again and have done away with the Christmas hat, hence the title of this post.

Had I myself been wearing a Santa hat for two months, aside from an exceedingly itchy scalp, I’d have had the most atrocious case of hat hair you’ve ever seen.

Thank goodness for digi-me in all my bouffant and hat hair-less glory

Despite not having been blogging, I have still been creating and gearing up for some fun stampin’ stuff in 2010.

I’ve been editing photos galore of some long-ago projects and will be sharing these in the next little while, as well as some newer stuff as well.

How about a little something to get the 2010 party started….?

My Christmas card designs for 2009!

You’ll notice I stayed well away from the Trendy Christmas Tree debacle of last year…

Forgive me for not adding in the materials lists for these cards – I may pop back in with that information, plus a little ‘how-to’ on the Christmas trees in the first cards, but I’m going to spend some reading time with my chickens before they pop off to bed.

What I will do is leave you with a little poll though, as it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a bit lately and thought I would throw the question out there, although possibly the Trendy Christmas Trees comment fest should warn me otherwise…

Anyways, here goes…

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

Those of you who have been hanging out here for a while would no doubt remember me having mentioned my best mate Jules.  We have known each other since sitting together in Year 11 Chemistry a whopping 19 years ago!  Holy cow, putting that down in words makes me feel really old…..

Moving right along…

You perhaps read this post over two years ago when Jules and her handsome man got engaged, followed perhaps by this one later that year about their beautiful wedding.

And then there were these posts where I mentioned Jules’ diagnosis with and ultimate victory over Hodgkin’s disease smack bang in the middle of all of the wedding arrangements and planning.

Well I am here to add another chapter to the book of Jules.  A very sweet chapter that began on Monday the 6th of July just gone, weighing 8lb 13oz.

Meet Noah James…

He is the most delightful bundle of fair haired, sweet smelling, arm flailing baby-goodness you could possibly imagine and I got to hold him when he was just two hours old!

This picture is not of me holding him though – my thumbs are a LOT more attractive…

Sophie is rather smitten with him too and chatters away about “baby Noah” at random intervals

When it came to making his card, I had one single idea of what I wanted to include on there – the word “boy” in the swirly frame from Frames with a Flourish but other than that I had no concept of where I was going to end up with it!

I was very pleased with where I did end up though, which was here…

“Welcome Noah Card”
Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Frames with a Flourish, Defining Alphabet, Polka Dot
Paper: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Kraft, Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Bone Scorer, Paper Trimmer (for scored lines in Kraft), Stampin’ Dimensionals

I also made a little book that could be used as a visitor book in hospital so that everyone who came along to see the little man could write a message to him and also to Jules and Grant

It was the simplest thing to make, which worked out well considering that  I would be visiting them within two hours of his birth and didn’t know all the details (like his name for example…) prior to his arrival!

“Welcome Noah Book”
Stamps: none
Paper: Hand Drawn Designer Series Paper (Level 3 Hostess), Riding Hood Red
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze striped grosgrain, Basic Black Stampin’ Write Journaller, my very own handwriting!

I had planned to include the details of the baby shower we threw for Jules in this post too, but having already written rather a novel about his actual arrival, I’ll save the baby shower for another day…  You won’t want to miss it – if only for the amazing CAKE….!