Magnolia Down Under Christmas Swap

A few months ago Boss Lady Kellie came up with a fabulous idea for the Magnolia Down Under DT - we were invited to join in a Christmas card swap! The AMAZING creations that landed in my letterbox just blew me away - I knew these lovely lady's were talented but to see their work IRL has been incredible - I am honoured to be in their company! I am going to make myself an inspiration wall with these after I frame them up - a job for the New Year!

 I also received some other gorgeous handmade cards and email Christmas wishes from other wonderful blogging friends - and for that I thank everyone - it has made my Christmas extra special this year!!! I hadn't blogged these earlier as I wanted to make sure the girls had all got theirs - but I thought I'd better blog them now or the Festive Season would be well and truly over - LOL!

A few weeks before Christmas I found these gorgeous wooden snowflakes in a little gift shop! My imagination took over and I knew I would use them for the swaps! I bought 3 different colours and decorated them with a layered snowflake, Christmas Tilda, some rhinestones and a ribbon bow! Now to make the card to go with them.....

I decided to re-size the "box and a card" I made here to create a card and packaging in one, the top opens up to be the card. I'm really happy with how it turned out - though there were a few frustrations along the way getting the drawer to fit just right!

Here you can see Tilda snuggled up in the drawer on some bubble wrap for the journey to her new home!

The handle for the drawer was a build-a-brad and I popped some Magnolia DP behind the bubble. The stamps, DP and gorgeous red lace ribbon all came from Kellie over at Magnolia Down Under Online Store. The CS and taffeta ribbon is from Stampin' Up. I used SU's chunky glitter on the large snowflake and Dazzling Diamonds over some liquid applique on the hat band and pom pom. I use a mix of Touch and Copic markers to colour!

I can't believe another year is almost done! I hope everyone is getting over their overindulgences of Christmas and are readying themselves for a new celebration to see in not only a New Year but a New DECADE!!! Have a safe and happy one.....

xXx

Stamp Camp Shoe Box Swap

Last weekend I had a fabulous weekend away with 21 other very talented SU demos. We were all asked to provide a shoe box swap to keep us busy over the weekend - I managed to finish them ALL - but 1 - woo hoo. This is the one I came up with. I used the gorgeous new Soft Summer stamp set from the new Spring Mini. The colours I chose were Basic Black, So Saffron and Sage Shadow - the softness of the stamp and the subtle cardstocks went well against the dramatic black.

The flowers were coloured using my SU markers - the only added colours were a touch of Pretty in Pink in the flower centres and Creamy Caramel for the stem. The larger flower was also popped up on Dimensionals. I also added some Dazzling Diamonds to the flower centres and the 2 Saffron "brads". The sentiment is for the hostess set Best Yet - I LOVE this set!!!!

Hope you all have a FABULOSO wekend....the sun is shining here this morning so I'll be able to think of Spring while I do my housework - I wonder how much extra family and creating time we could have if houses were self cleaning - LOL.

Edited to add - A shoe box swap is this - everyone designs a card/project and has their finshed card/project in a box - along with all the CS cut to size, stamps, ink pads and accessories needed to create that card/project. These boxes are then placed on a central table so the other swappers can take them to their work station to complete. Hope that makes sense!

xXx

Regionals - Swaps and Make'n'Takes

I just wanted to show off some of the gorgeous swaps available at Regionals last weekend - there are some very talented people out there! I've had a look at some of the other photos I took of the individual cards laid out on the back table - but the lighting wasn't the best for photography as it has cast shadows over nearly all of my photos. Never mind - at least I can get ideas from the photos even if they aren't good enough to fill up some blog space -it's such a shame as there really were some beauties! Maybe my next job should be photography lessons, or I should invest in a better camera instead of new stamp sets - NOT LIKELY!!!

It was very exciting to check in at the desk and be handed a Make'n'take Kit and a new stamp set - wooohoooo!!! During the day we were treated to some fabulous technique demonstrations as well as some fantastic business tips - wonderful for the table of SU "virgins" I was sitting at!! We also got to play with some of the new tools, stamps and DP's from the new Summer Mini when we did our make'n'takes. I wasn't to sure about this set but as the day went on it proved to be sooo versatile - it's called Live Your Dream. I have discovered this alarming trend about SU stamps - the first time you see a set it may not grab your attention immediately - but watch out wallet!!!! - it soon becomes a "must have"!!! My long suffering hubby is finding this a very hard concept to grasp - LOL.

My Regional Swaps Revealed!

Well here they are - my first ever swaps! I must admit to being quite proud of them and I was rapt with the feedback I got about them at Regionals today - I'll talk more about the Regionals in the next day or so - I need to download and sort some pictures and get over the fete tomorrow first!!!

Recipe Ingredients -
Stamp sets - One of a Kind, Artfully Asian, Boho Backgrounds
Cardstock - Regal Rose, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Inks - Always Artichoke, Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red
Ribbon - Always Artichoke grosgrain
Punches - Tag, Boho Blossoms
Other Bits - 30 gauge green wire, Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, 2 Way Glue, SNAIL, Crystal Effects, 12mm Double-Sided Tape

Here are the step by step instructions to re-create these for yourselves......

For the flowers stamp 1 set each of Regal Rose, Rose Red and Bravo Burgundy using the 3 flowers stamp from One of a Kind onto Whisper White CS. You'll also need 1 extra small pink flower. Punch out using the Boho Blossoms Punch and set the largest flower aside for another project. Also punch out some flowers from plain Whisper White CS. Cut the wire into short lengths, turn the top over to help the wire stop sliding out of the flower. Sandwich the wire between 1 stamped flower and 1 plain flower using Crystal Effects as your glue - I originally used SNAIL but the flowers tended to pop apart. I haven't tried the Crystal Effects but a lovely demonstrator at Regionals today suggested it would solve my problem. I had 1 of each size and colour wired up, and one spare small flower - this is put on last using Dimensionals. Use a little 2 Way Glue on the flower centre and dip into Dazzling Diamonds - set aside for later.

Cut some Very Vanilla to 4 1/8" x 2 15/16" - sorry about the measurements, I tend to cut to suit me and measure later - it sometimes ends up with these strange measurements!!! Stamp the flowers from the Boho Backgrounds set onto Certainly Celery using Always Artichoke ink. Cut 1 vase top out of the stamped CS using the Tag Punch. Cut 1 vase base out of plain Celery CS using just the top of the Tag Punch. Sponge Always Artichoke around the edges of both pieces.

Attach the vase base to the Very Vanilla CS as a guide. Cut 1 tag out of a post-it note and trim a few mm's off the top of the vase so your stamping doesn't stop short of the vase top. Stick the post-it note vase top in place
on the Very Vanilla.

Using the fern-like leaf stamp from Artfully Asian stamp 3 times in Always Artichoke using the post-it note as a guide.


Colour in one of each of the leaf sections that cross over each other - this hides the messy cross overs as well as adding another dimension to the backgound.

Add 2 pieces of double-sided tape to where the vase will be. This helps hold the flowers in place as you position them.




Arrange your flowers making sure the wires are laid side by side - you don't want too much bulk under the vase. Once you are happy, attach the vase with SNAIL and pop the unwired flower onto the top of the vase.

Tie a knot in a small piece of Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon and attach to the vase to hide the join.

Layer your floral arrangement and it's base onto 3 3/16" x 4 7/16" of Certainly Celery, then 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" of Rose Red, and finally onto the top part of a Regal Rose card that has the sentiment from One of a Kind stamped onto the bottom right in Bravo Burgundy.

I hope you enjoyed checking this out - please let me know if you give it a try, I'd love to see what you come up with.

Post-It Note Holders

I just thought I'd show you some more things I've made for my son's fete - which is this Sunday. I'll be glad to finish off and pass the box of bits on! These are post-it note holders made from acrylic picture frames and I originally found the tutorial at SCS - check out the link below. I was grateful to have my friend Deb help me out as I was starting to stress a little about all the things I had to do - and some of it was even housework and looking after the kids - LOL!!! My daughter also took time out from studying for her end of year exams to help with the colour selections - so I hope you like our collaborative effort! I was really pleased to find the mini gel pens at K-Mart at a very reasonable price.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/acrylic_post_ittrade_note_holder/

I also wanted to give you a sneak peek at what my work table has been reduced to this week. Not only am I finishing off bits for the fete, I'm also off to my very first SU Regionals on Saturday and I'm trying to make some swaps to take with me... I'll post the finished swap later - IF I ever get them all done as it's back to work tomorrow!! I've mentioned before that I love the Boho Blossoms Punch from the Spring Mini - but think I might just give it a rest for a while after I'm done with these - LOL.