Christmas Gifts 2012

I have been spoilt this year with handmade Christmas gifts

and here are a few to share with you.

I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends who care for me.

Denise made me this amazing card, so much work has gone into it

and a gorgeous box with chocolates inside.

Nerida sent me this wonderful shaker card and a cute Christmas

pouch filled with tea bags.

Kiara, aged 16, very talented, made me this amazing tree decoration.

I can just imagine the time it took to make this.

I decorated a few brown paper bags to put some gifts in for friends.

It was a last minute idea to place the gifts in bags but I am 

happy with how they turned out.

Stampin Up Christmas Handbag No.2

Here is another handbag I made for a gift.

Once again I used a tutorial from Becky Roberts.

I made a large Christmas ornament to fit inside

the bag and a smaller one to hang off the front of the bag.

I love the look of the larger ornament as it has a soft

vintage feel about it and I wanted it to be extra special

for the recipient. I have now made about 45 of these

ornaments, all different and I have really enjoyed

seeing how each one turns out.

Christmas Handbags

For me Christmas craft would not be complete

 without making a few Christmas handbags

to place some gifts in. Each year I am excited to see what Christmas

 paper Stampin Up will bring out and how cool it

will look when I make a bag.

You can buy the tutorial from Becky Roberts to make these bags.

This year I used Stampin Up framelits to cut out a window

in the front of the bag so you could see through to the gift.

Embossed Layers

Here are some cards to share with you.

A vintage kind of feel to them.

December Stamp Club

For our December Stamp Club, held a little early,

the ladies made two gift boxes and two Christmas cards.

The idea for the mini lunch bag came from Sydney's Heartfelt event.

The other box is the Stampin Up Craft gift boxes, these were a hit.

I made these gift boxes for my Stamp Club ladies, with

a few little gifts inside.

Happy Mail

I have posted off this gift last week so the recipient

can receive some happy mail.

I love to give it makes me happy. 

Believe

I recently covered this word, Believe.

I added some glitter and Stampin Up Christmas DSP.

It's nice to add something like this each year to our collection.

Back Soon

I am having a few difficulties with my Blog.

I hope to be back soon so I can share my

creations with you all. Some posts are gone for good

and some are missing parts. So it might be a lengthy process.

Handmade Give & Take Gift

I wanted to share with you some very beautiful gifts I received in the post yesterday.

I adore the wrapping. I am such a stationary girl and I didn't want

to open my gifts because I just wanted to stare at the wrapping all night.

But it did get the better of me and I was going to save the gifts till Christmas

but really who could wait that long.

Here is a link to the Give & Take page that I participated in this year.

http://isaidyesdear.blogspot.com.au/p/give-take.html

I had so much fun buying for my taker and I will post

my gifts when I am sure they have arrived.

I had such a warm and fuzzy feeling and truly felt spoilt when I

unwrapped my gifts.

How gorgeous is this card.

Festive Friday Challenge No.45

I really liked the colour combo for this challenge

and as I have been on a Christmas ornament frenzy

of late I decided to use these colours for an ornament.

I was inspired by Sharlene's card using the Ornament Keepsakes stamp.

You still have time to have a go at this challenge. Check out this link,

http://nicolederendorf.com/2012/11/16/festive-friday-45-colour-challange/

Quick & Simple Christmas Cards

I have made a few Christmas cards to have on hand

for the kids to give to friends, neighbours and the postie.

I kept them simple and mostly one layer.

It was a good chance to get to use up different Stampin Up

products and tools. I also made many using different

colour schemes, which was a good change.

Clockworks Birthday Card with Stampin Up

Here is a card to share with you that came together very quickly.

I wanted a teenage boy card and I didn't have alot of time to

put one together. The Stampin Up Clockworks stamp set

was on my desk from last Saturday so after stamping out

a few images and using the Simply Scored Scoring Tool

 to add some scored lines the card was finished.

The birthday boy will be more concerned to what's in the card

then what the card looks like so a quick card

 is a cool card in this case.

Stampin Up Sydney Heartfelt Event

My favourite part of the Stampin Up Heartfelt Event

held in Sydney on Saturday was the inspiration.

So many talented people in one place and all offering

wonderful ideas and hints. On the drive home I just

couldn't wait to get home so I could pull out all

my products and put to use everything I had learnt.

Sometimes I think what more could I get out of a

particular product and then WOW I can get so

much more after seeing others ideas.

Perfect Plum Stampin Up Christmas Ornament

I made this ornament for a Stampin friend.

She loves the colour purple and so this gave me

a great chance to make this ornament using Perfect Plum

and some beautiful silver glimmer paper.

I also made a box, at the last minute, so the ornament

would be protected a bit more for travelling.

Nerida is one of those friends that you might not see very often

but when you do catch up you just start chatting from where

you left off last time you caught up.

Heartfelt Event with Stampin Up

Tomorrow I will be heading off to Darling Harbour to attend

Stampin Up's Heartfelt event. I have been looking forward to this

event all year. I have made a name badge, a Christmas decoration

to attach to the display boards and to carry all my things around in

I very quickly decorated a bag with Stampin Up's fabric.

Don't look too close at the fabric, I am not the greatest with

a sewing machine but I am happy with how it turned out.

I must thank my daughter for her help with the bag, we did have many laughs,

as she knows her way around a sewing machine very well and Mum does not.

Cherry Cobbler Stampin Up Christmas Ornament

I made this ornament using Very Vanilla

and Cherry Cobbler colours, my kind of colours.

This ornament turns out quite large and looks stunning

with the pearls for added decadence.

Blue & Silver Christmas Decorations with Stampin Up

I am trying very hard to make as many Christmas decorations

as I can in spare moments I can find. Wow this time of

year gets so busy. If you see a mad lady folding, cutting or gluing

at strange places, like soccer I am just time managing my

time really well. Well I'm trying.

 I stepped out of the box with

these decorations, they are not red & green, my preferred

Christmas colours for my home. I have made these

decorations in Baja Breeze, Whisper White & silver.

I love how they have turned out and I really love this colour combo.

So much that next year we might have a change in this home

to a blue, white & silver Christmas. If I could sneak it past my husband.

All products are Stampin Up.

I will be back tomorrow with more photos of the Cherry Cobbler

Christmas Decoration, for today you get a sneak peek.

Stampin Up Christmas Craft Day Kusudama Flower

Yesterday I held a Christmas craft day.

We had two projects for the day.

The first project was a Christmas Tree decorated

with many strips of DSP and pins.

The second project we made a Kusudama

Christmas Flower Star ornament.

It was a great day and if only men knew what

women talk about at craft. It really is more

like a therapy session than craft sometimes.

There were lots of laughs and a few very tired ladies

at the end of the day, me included.

It is hard to see in these photos the glitter on the flower,

it looks very pretty in the light.

All products are Stampin Up.

Stampin Up Never Ending Card

I have never made one of these cards before.

Once I had the understanding of how this card worked,

I was amazed. There is alot of cutting that is involved

for this card and next time I would do some things a

little different but for my first attempt I am really pleased.

The card is even more crazy with the DSP.

All products are Stampin Up.

Light Up Christmas with Stampin Up

I found this cool tutorial here,

http://astampabove.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/easel-card-video.html

to make the card below.

I am going to keep this one for myself to use for my Christmas display

this year, I am getting a collection now.

But it is such a cool card that I think I will

be making more. It's not the ideal card to post but is cool

if you are seeing the recipient to give it personally.

I have used all my favourite things on this card from Stampin Up.

Vintage Style Stampin Up

My favourite style, Vintage.

Nothing says Vintage like pearls, a dress form, ribbon, lace,

embossed card and a vintage brad to finish off.

I love the layers, elements,texture and a little white space for interest.

All products are Stampin Up.

Be Thankful

I have alot to be thankful for, sometimes I get

caught up with life and forget this. So this week I have made a

few Thank-You cards to send off to people

that have helped me recently and a few just because.