JAI #102 - Kathy Tanner Tribute

Coincidence is a funny thing. I was looking around for some inspiration for boys birthday cards, and I was going back through the archives at Stamping Still (Kathy Tanner's blog). Not trying to give her a big head, or anything, but I love Kathy's style and I think her cards are just gorgeous. Hers is one of the first blogs I turn to for inspiration. I found this card, and thought it was a perfect CASE for my theme. Imagine my surprise, when later on I head over to Just Add Ink and see their theme for this week is CASing Kathy!  It's taken me a few days to get to, but tonight I finally did it! Here is my version of Kathy's gorgeous inlaid embossed card:

I think I may have to re-do the Elebration stamp - I'm not quite happy with my dodgy stamp placement (note to self - you bought the damn Stamp-a-majig, USE IT!!), or even dodgier watercolouring ;)


So that's it for me for this month! Head over to JAI and see what the other creative minds have done with Kathy's creations :)

How could I forget....

SALE-A-BRATION IS HERE!!!

A very exciting time in the SU calendar - you get awesome bonus items when you order!
Have a squizz at the  Sale-A-Bration brochure online. 

Spend $100 on SU products, and you get to choose one of the lovely new products released just for Sale-a-bration! Even more bonuses for being a hostess too... let me know when you'd like to have a workshop ;)

We're aliiive!

We survived! 2 tired, frazzled, overwhelmed adults and 4 loud, whiney, screaming, fighting, tantruming, gorgeous, adorable children all survived our latest family holiday intact! More or less. It was a challenge at times, but for the most part  I think everyone enjoyed themselves. If they could have, I'm sure the boys would have spent all day in the pool, except Wil... he doesn't seen to be quite as keen. I must say though, it was very nice to get back to our own bed! Hotel beds are never comfortable, and having Max's portacot in our room wasn't exactly helpful in getting a good night's sleep.

Now all we need to get through is the rest of school holidays!

Things have been so busy, with outings, playdates and general goofing off, that I haven't had much of a chance (or inclination!) to get the craft supplies out. The other night a couple of friends came over and we cracked open a bottle (or 4!) of bubbly and we went crazy! My bud Jo brought her Silhouette machine round, and we did a bit of creative mish-mashing, and we're pretty proud of the results!

Here they are:

A bit of cute, simple and combo goodness!

Silhouette onesies, and Michelle goes crazy with the pink and green!

Dinos rule! And my quilted masterpiece ;)

I'm so proud of this one, I thought it needed a close up! (Can you spot the pretty new Sale-a-bration DSP? Huh? Can you??)

 Loving the versatility of the Stocking punch, and am totally in love with my cute little dragon!

Working on my watercolour skilz  with the help of the cutest little elephant in the world! And no post would be complete with out some owls :)

Butterflies part two

Here is a quick post, just to show the rest of the present I made for Ollie's friend's birthday.


First, the easel card to go with the present:

If you look veeeeeeeery closely, you might be able to see a sneak peek of one of the awesome items available in the upcoming Sale-a-bration! (How about the first person to spot it and comment will get a special gift from me...ready, set, go!)

Next we have the totally gorgeous (modest, aren't I ;)) gift bag to put all the goodies in. I found the very easy to follow tutorial for this bag on Jenny Hayward's blog. It was very simple to put together, and I think it looks so cute! I can see myself making loads more of these in the future.

And finally, a group shot of the loot :)

Ta-ta for now... I'll be back with more pretties after our little family trip - if we all survive!

Beautiful Butterflies

I am going to be ooooohhh so naughty today, and I'm going to try to have a rest while the twins are asleep and the big boys are playing Harry Potter! I know! How incredibly decadent of me to try to have a sit down in the middle of the day! Don't care though. Some days you just need to put your feet up and relax for a while. But before I get to go and do that, I must post about butterflies!! (well, hopefully... it may take a while typing on this clunky old keyboard. Apparently caramel lattes aren't good for laptop keyboards... who knew?)

One of my boys has a birthday party to go to on Sunday, so I thought I would try to make part of the gift. Since it's for a 5 (turning 6) year old girl, I was hoping that a cool, funky little note book would be well received. Of course, I am not actually capable of cool or funky, so this will have to do :)

I'm actually pretty happy with it - it came out almost the same as it was in my head (and my head more often than not waaaaaaaaaay overestimates my actual abilities). The beautiful butterflies die is, well, beautiful! There are so many options on how to use it, and let's be honest, who doesn't love butterflies?

I used the beautiful wings embosslit while I was at it to make some wall decorations for my future crafting space! I love the fact that the big shot and dies can cut through felt. I've even managed to get some types of felt to show up a pretty good pattern after going through the embossing folders.

Anyhoo, I'm off to put my feet up for the 5 minutes I'll be lucky to get before the twins' "Mummy is having a rest" radar goes off :) I'll be making a card for the party too, so I'll pop back and post when it's finished! I'm thinking top note easel.. but we'll see what actually happens later!

Mocha Diamonds

Woohoo... first post of the year! It's only taken me 6 days :) I'm actually amazed that I managed to get anything made to post about - having all the kids at home is not the best for the creative juices :)
Thankfully my darling husband had a birthday yesterday, so I had a reason to force myself to get jiggy with the stamping (yeah, I know.. I'm a sad, sad individual).

So here is my creation.

I love the mocha morning dsp - it's got such a lovely, decadent feel to it. It works really well for masculine cards too. The diamond fold technique is really quite simple, it just looks involved. This one only took about an hour to make - which is quick for me. That included measuring, cutting, choosing card/paper, watching tv, talking to people, spilling my delish frozen pina colada all over the table, cleaning it all up, getting a fresh drink and eating malteasers :) I'm so proud of how I can multi task ;)

Anyway, that's it for now. I have some grand plans for the near future, so hopefully I'll get some peace and quiet to see them through!