Party bags!

I'm a bit of a spanner sometimes, I really am. I've had a very busy week, making lots and lots of cards, tags and other cool stuff.. and I forget to take photos!! Thankfully, I did remember (well, I did get reminded) to take some pics of these totes gorge party bags I helped my friend Bron (Hi Bron!!) make for her daughter's 2nd birthday party!

We had a lovely morning of crafty goodness making these babies.. once I got the measurements for the base right ;) It's a box-in-a-bag, super simple to make (heaps of video tutes around) but they look pretty special. We used my SU tools on Bron's paper and I think we did a good job... you too Simon :) I hope all the kiddies at the party will like them... but I reckon they'll be more interested in the goodies inside :)

SU Tools: Round tab punch, 5 petal flower punch, boho blossoms punch, fancy flower punch, scallop trim border punch, timeless type junior alphabet, big shot, sticky strip, snail

Pop Up Owl with Balloons!

Get ready for another installment of "My Obsession with Pop Up Owl cards" dunh dunh duuuuuuunh!

My 5yo is going to a friend's birthday party tomorrow, and I must admit that making cards for 5yo boys is certainly not my strong suit. So I decided to do my own version of a card I found on Tami White's blog. I pretty much followed her closely for the front, but decided that the inside needed a bit more pop...hahahaha, get it, POP! Ooh I crack myself up sometimes :) So a couple of circle punches and some owl feet later, a nice, bright bunch of balloons that jump out at you when you open the card!

Stamp Sets: Short & Sweet, Create a Cupcake, Woodgrain

Card: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Real Red DSP, Under the Big Top DSP, Tangerine Tango

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Black marker, white gel pen

Other: Owl Punch, 3/4" Circle punch, 1" circle punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, oval punch, modern label punch, Bird punch, silver cord.

JAI #93

Time for another Just Add Ink challenge!! This time the lovely DT ladies have come up with a gorgeous colour combo that features some of my fave hues:




I must admit to going slightly off the SU reservation today. My darling friend Jo (Hi Jo! *waves*) got an awesome new toy a few days ago - A Silhouette! It is very cool, and can do some amazing stuff. I went for a visit today and made her push a few buttons and cut out this very cute box template, which I then faahhbulously decorated ;)

An added bonus was that the postie came this afternoon with my pre order from the new summer mini catalogue!! So if you look closely (or scroll down to the close up ;)) you'll be able to see one of the new products available from December 1st - Iridescent Ice embossing powder!! SU have saved us all the bother of having to mix our Dazzling Diamonds with clear ep or heat & stick powder by bring out the pretties! I love adding sparkle and I know I'll be using this heaps.

I really do think I need to employ my husband to be my official photographer.. because I totally suck! It doesn't help that most of the time I'm trying to take pics at 10pm, but even in the day I can't take a good one. He's tried to explain how to do it properly lots of times, but it's a bit like when he starts talking computer stuff to me.. my eyes start to roll back in my head and I start to drool a little. I love you sweetie, but I DON'T CARE about the details, just take the damn photo! ;) Of course, the not caring part pretty much means I don't get to do the whining about not taking a good photo, and whining is something I'm very good at :)

Anyway... back to the topic. Head over to JAI and check out all the other gorgeous creations or enter your own! I'm off to play with my lush new Spice Cake dsp!!

Kindergarten love

My 5 year old has made a very cute new friend this year. At his school there are two kinder classes run on Monday/Tuesday, and he was lucky enough to be in a class with his best friend and quite a few other kids he knows pretty well. But quite early in the year he made friends with a little girl in the other classroom, named Sophie, and she is soooo cute! They draw pictures or make box-work for each other in class then swap them at the end of the day. Sophie made a pretty cool box-work clock and gave it to Ollie yesterday, so last night he asked me to make something special that he could give to her today. It had to have her name on it, and it *had* to be pink and purple, cos those are her favourite colours... so here it is!

I guess I'll hear after school whether she liked it or not :)

Christmassy goodness!

Wowzers trousers! Two posts in one day.. what the heck is going on? Well, the twins are asleep, the big boys are at school, and I'm ignoring all the housework that needs doing... so a typical monday really :)

It's actually a bit of therapy for me today... I'm feeling really *blargh* about everything, so I decided the best thing to do about it would be to vent to the world. Does anyone else ever feel like they're swimming underwater with a rock on their head stopping them from getting to the surface? That's were I am at the moment. I love my kids, and I wouldn't swap any of them for anything, but everything is just so overwhelming at the moment! Our house is a mess (well, nothing new there), the twins are actively destroying anything not nailed down, the older two have attitude coming out their ears, and it's getting to that time of year when everything just goes crazy and there are an additional sebentybajillion things to organise! I keep threatening to go stay in a hotel for a week just to get some peace and quiet, but I know my darling husband would never cope with all 4 kids on his own for anything more than a few hours.
So needless to say, once the kids are in bed and the nightly jobs are done, I feel the need to crack open a bottle of wine and viciously stamp things ;) Has anyone ever seen the cool lassie who does the My Drunk Kitchen videos? I think she's awesomely funny! I totally had the idea to do the same thing, but it would be Adventures of the Drunken Stamper. I can just imagine the wonderful, lopsided, smudged projects that would come forth at the end of each episode ;) Unfortunately I sound absolutely rubbish on video (even though I'm absolutely stunning in every other way ;)), and I have a feeling that Stampin Up demo support wouldn't approve of the idea :) Aahh well... maybe one day some other brave soul will throw their empty wine bottle out there and do it.

Ok, rant over now. A few deep breaths, "have a cup of concrete, princess", and we're back to the stamping! Kathy from StampingStill posted an awesome card the other day where she used the Stiched Stockings stamps and punch to make this card. I though it was a great idea, so I CASEd it for some of my christmas cards. Then at my christmas workshop a friend was playing with the Jolly Bingo Bits set, and we figured out you could use some of them as letters too.... so I did!

I think it looks really cute! Maybe with a bit more thought I could have come up with a better idea for the red panel - maybe some clear or gold embossing, or a nice, stripey DSP - but I  thought it wasn't a bad effort.

So that's it for today, I promise. No more ranting! I know I said I was going to post some pics of the projects from the christmas workshop, and I will, but I have a few ladies who couldn't make it on the day who are going to come round in a couple of weeks, so I don't want to ruin the surprise for them :) Once everyone has finished, I'll post pics :)

One final thing.. after having a good old rant about how difficult it is to have twins (parents of triplets or more may slap me here), I have to share this gorgeous photo I took at playgroup this morning. Max was pushing Wil around the playground in the car, and they were having a lovely time! If only they were always this cute :)

PDCC107 - Another challenge!

Yes, it's another blog challenge entry! I might be getting a bit carried away with all the challenges I've found over the last few days (and there are a couple more coming!), but I've been having so much fun! It's one thing to create a card with a person or occasion in mind, but I've found that it's a lot easier for those who may be creatively challenged at times (i.e. me) to have some constraints or guidelines to work within.

This week's challenge at the Play Date Cafe was to use black and white with a splash of orange. Even though this card is pretty simple, I'm quite proud of it. I'm fairly certain that I made this one up completely by myself! It's sometimes hard to tell, because even though I didn't CASE anyone directly, I may have recalled something that I'd seen somewhere else and just thought I'd come up with it.
Anyway, here it is (and if it looks like something anyone has already done and posted, let me know and I'll credit ;))

It's a bit hard to see in the pic (cos I'm the worlds dodgiest photographer!), but I've used some vanilla shimmer smooch spritz on the black card and there is actually some clear plastic under the orange circle to make a window!


Stamps: Punch Bunch (r), Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Snow Swirled
Cardstock: whisper white, basic black, pumpkin pie
Ink: versamark, basic black, real red, pumpkin pie marker, night of navy
Other: White embossing powder, decorative label punch, white gel pen, owl punch, word window punch, modern label punch, vanilla shimmer smooch spritz. Circle nestabilities dies, big shot

Guess who found more challenge blogs?!?!

That's right.. it's me! I've started out pretty slowly with the challenges, but I was feeling pretty inspired (could that be the wine?) so I decided to have a crack at some other blog challenges. As well as being fun, these challenges help me learn new techniques that I can use to make more cool stuff! Plus I end up with lots of pretties to give my bestest buddies :) (you know who you are!)

So, since it's waaaaay past my bed time, here is the pic of my evening's toil.

I've combined challenges from Just Us Girls and Inkspirations to make this Christmas gift box with non traditional colours. I'm loving the Petals A Plenty embossing folder for Christmas stuff - it's got that hint of the jolly without being overpowering. Kind of like a bottle of cheap bubbly :)

Aaaaanyhoo, enough for now, but I'll be back later with more aweseome...... umm... awesome stuff! (I've got some new toys coming soon, so stay tuned!)

BIG November Special!

Here it is, my crafty minions! The awesome November special from Stampin' Up! is BIG SHOT DISCOUNTS!!

There is a selection of dies and embossing folders being offered at 10% off the normal catalogue price, and if you don't own your own Big Shot yet (what the heck is wrong with you??), there is a fantastic Big Shot bundle just waiting for you!!
Check out the list below and tell me you don't want them! I dare you!

JAI #92 - Just Add a Tag or Bookmark

It's been a very hectic few weeks, and I promise to add some Christmas workshop pics tomorrow, but for now I'm quickly putting up my entry for the Just Add Ink challenge for this week. It was quite by coincidence that I made some thank you tags for the ladies who ordered at my last workshop and this week's challenge is Just Add a Tag or Bookmark... easypeasylemonsqueezy! I figured since I'd already made them to put on the bags, I may as well enter! I absolutely *had* to use my latest toy, the delightful Two Tags die, and it is sooo cute! I can see tags popping up everywhere in my house in the near future :)

Aaaanyhoo.. it's getting late, so I'll add the pic then get my beauty rest (and trust me, I need it!). I'll be back tomorrow to post the goodies we made at the Christmas Extravaganzaaaaaaaa (were there that many a's?), and the latest, most awesomest ever special from Stampin' Up!