Christmas Can Be a Cracker

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping with a friend and came across a really cute Christmas cracker made by Jessica Walker Chocolates. It came with a chocolate inside. I saw the potential and decided to buy it - much to my daughter's surprise when I got home and she exclaimed "You paid $3.95 for ONE chocolate!!!" I quickly explained she was welcome to the chocolate - I wanted the box as a template - LOL. I can thank the lovely Karen Thomas from Luv to Stamp for teaching me to look at packaging and it's potential. A friend recently thought I was a little odd when I raced to KFC to buy some Popcorn Chicken for the box after seeing Karen's fabulous project - LOL - check it out here. Of course my popcorn chicken box is hiding somewhere in my crafting space waiting to be used as a template - but I know it's there when I want it!!!

I took the empty cracker off to Stamp Camp on the weekend - it was actually made in 2 parts but I wanted to simplify it and make it from a single piece of card. I've worked out the dimensions for you if you want to make one for yourself - yours will work out a tiny bit larger as I wanted to make the measurements a bit easier to follow!

To decorate mine I used DP and lace from Magnolia - available at Kellie's Magnolia Down Under Store. The tag is one of Bizzy Becs new Digital Tickets available at Bec's new Digi Downloads Store. The CS is from Stampin Up - Kraft and Real Red. The flowers were from a local craft store.

Now here are the measurements for you - feel free to contact me if they don't make sense! The great thing about these Crackers is that you can open then up easily without tearing them by simply untying the ribbon bows in the valleys!

Cut your card 7" x 5"

Across the 5" edge score at 3/4", 1 1/2", 2 1/4", 3", 3 3/4", 4", 4 1/2"

Across the 7" edge score at 1", 1 5/8", 2 1/4", 4 3/4", 5 3/8", 6"

Embellishments as desired.

Use the shaded areas on this picture to work out where to remove CS. For the triangles I cut from halfway up the middle score line in the section - this doesn't need to be acurate and I just pencilled mine in - it's where the cracker folds in. This score line is also the only one to be a valley fold - the rest are all mountain folds. The line across the top with the rectangles removed is the tab for the join.

I hope you have some fun with these - I will be looking forward to seeing yours - please let me know if you make one!

Now I better go feed the hungry hordes and have an early night!! Stamp Camp was sooo much fun but I had waaayyyy to little sleep - it was a little hard concentrating at work today - LOL. I do have more fun things I made at camp to show you - but some of them are DT work so will have to wait a little!!!

Hope you all had a FANTASTIC weekend too...

Edit - When Bec saw this she realised she had the sentiment wrong - I certainly hadn't noticed had you??? This one says "the means you" instead of "that means you". She has since corrected it and re-sent it to all those who had already bought this set! So if you had noticed the mistake don't let it put you off buying these fabulous digital tickets.

xXx

Sorry Guys!!!!

I just wanted to let you know I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth - LOL. I have family arriving from overseas in a week and have been trying to get ready. I have also been madly organising myself for a weekend away at Stamp Camp - yahoooooo!!! I'm heading off in about an hour!

Hopefully I'll have some fun projects to show you next week - I know I'll be cleaning and moving beds then too - AND work has asked me to put in extra time (noooooo!!!) - so am hoping to get a HEAP of crafting done this weekend!!

Take care and I'll be back soon....

xXx

Basic Grey Christmas!

It seems to me that the Christmas craziness has begun early this year - the week's seem to be racing ahead and there's sooo much to do!! I saw my DD off to schoolies today, have a weekend of stamping away coming up - and relatives arriving for Christmas in less than 2 weeks - aaagh!!! I think the one sanity in my life is my crafting!!! And since it's Wednesday today I get to play over at The Stamp Spot Blog - LOL.

Have you noticed - NO COLOURING!! And virtually NO STAMPING either!!! But with these gorgeous Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses papers it would be silly NOT to make them the feature event! I love these papers sooo much I picked up the whole paper pad from The Stamp Spot Online Store early on! This little village scene is soo cute, and combine it with the cuttlebug ornaments embossing folder it makes a fairly quick and easy card - which still has a bit of a wow factor! So remember to look at your DPs as main images and not just for backgrounds - and with all the fabulous papers Marcia has instore at The Stamp Spot I'm sure there's something for everyone!! The snowflake is a Spellbinders die - I'm just LOVING this die!!

xXx

The Greeting Farm's New Digis

Last week The Greeting Farm released a fabulous collection of digital fairies - and I think I had mine within a few hours - LOL. My daughter's BF recently turned 18 and I knew I wanted this beautiful fairy to put on her card. The big party was last Saturday night, once all the final exams were done. The party's theme was "white" and one of her favourite colours is purple - so I had all the elements in place! All I needed now was a layout - soo I went and visited Mojo Monday and used their sketch #113 - the sketch for last week.

I really wanted to layer the flower so I used 3 flowers and which I coloured, cut and shaped - before glittering the edges and layering them up. A large pearl in the middle finished it off. I also coated the wings in Dazzling Diamonds for extra sparkle - what's a fairy without sparkle??? With the flower being the focal point I really didn't want to add to much other embellishment - so have finished up with quite a clean card. A bit of Cuttlebug embossing and some chipboard numbers and I was done.

xXx

Magnolia Down Under Challenge #27 - Something for Christmas

This week's challenge over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges has been a bit of fun - to make something for Christmas! Now don't get scared off - it CAN be a card! I had an idea for this Gingerbread House when I received my first edition of Magnolia Ink Magazine from The Magnolia Down Under Online Store! In the magazine there was a tutorial for an adorable birdhouse - I have basically just adapted that tutorial to make this! The major differences are that I haven't cut out the bird house "hole" and I've made the flap fold up about 1/2" below the top of the roof - so I didn't have to put a bend in poor Santa's tooshie - OUCH! It's a fairly simple box - I am very tempted to make another more elaborate one - but I was running out of time! I think a few chockies in here and it will make a great little gift for someone!

You may be wondering HOW Santa ended up HAVING a tooshie - LOL. I used a very pale pink inkpad - SU's Pink Pirouette - and my mirror image stamp to stamp Santa in reverse onto some Whisper White CS. I then free hand pencilled in Santa's back view before going over it with my Copic liner and colouring him in. I really wanted him sitting on the roof top and just couldn't come up with another background I liked to cover his back! He's sandwiched together at the top with the front of Santa and just split over the pitch of the roof.

I also made the little wreath for the front door. I punched a ring out using my 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches. The fronds were the tips off the fern punch. I used 3 different tones of green and some mini red and clear rhinestones for decoration. I've added a white pearl for a door handle too.

The mini white ric rac was found at the Paperific show last weekend - perfect!!! I punched the "lollies" out of some 2007 Cosmo Cricket DP I had - using 1 in a build-a-brad for the handle of the box - the brad was fed through a bead to before being fixed so that it sat up a bit. A magnetic clasp holds the lid shut. The roof DP is from Kaiser.

Now off you go to check out what the rest of the MDUC DT has made to inspire you. And thanx to Kellie for sponsoring the challenge with this gorgeous stamp for our winner...hmmmmm - wonder if I can enter under another name - LOL.

STOP THE PRESS!!!  Special on Magnolia Christmas Stamps at Kellie's….

From today until Wednesday, 25th of November 2009 you can get 20% OFF any Christmas stamp available in store at Magnolia Down Under. It has finally been confirmed that these gorgeous guys and gals will be arriving at Kellie's around the start of the week. The excitement from the DT is infectious so jump on board and join the fun!!! LOL.

Pop over HERE and don’t miss out!

xXx

Anya Ink Challenge #7 - A Boy's Card

This week's challenge over at Anya Ink seems relatively simple - to make a boy's card! It amazes me how difficult this simple sounding brief can be! Recently I re-watched Pirate's of the Carribean and it inspired me to use this fabulous Pirate Ian that I bought from The Stamp Spot. A couple of week's ago Anya Ink had challenged us to tole our images and I enjoyed this so much I decided to re-visit and toled this guy. The top of the scarf, the skull on his belt and the eyepatch were shaped slightly using an embossing tool. I also paper pieced his bandanna and scarf.

The sentiment is from The Greeting Farm too - as is the skull and crossbones image I used to create a faux brad (using Crystal Effects over the image). The DP is from Kaisercraft and was found hiding in my poor neglected stash!

All in all this challenge wasn't too hard once I made the decision of which image and DP to use - it just seemed to come together! Don't you just love it when that happens!!!

xXx

Christmas at The Stamp Spot

One of the things I love about being on a DT is that sometimes you get to play with things you wouldn't usually have - and it's always fun to see what goodies arrive in my DT kit! This angel from Stampendous is one of those things! Marcia over at The Stamp Spot sent me a stamped image to play with and I have decided she's just gorgeous. I had seen this stamp before but had honestly only given it a passing glance! But to have the image stamped in front of me and then to see it come to life with colour - hmmmm - I think she'll be on my next order!!! It just goes to show you need to REALLY look at images sometimes and imagine them stamped up!

My daughter saw this card sitting on the coffee table and asked who had sent it - because she really liked it! She was surprised when I told her it was mine - and not finished yet, I still had to put on the bling! She thought it was soo not my style - but that again is the fun of experimenting! I actually love this card and the papers from Bo Bunny have been the perfect choice. I used both sides of the paper and was surprised how different they were - but how fabulous they looked together!

My image has been cut using my nesties - with the same size nestie being cut in 2 colours to frame her - I trim the end points off and then split them in 2 down the middle. To bling her up I added Dazzling Diamonds to the tips of her wings and the base of her dress, and some Kaiser pearls on the card.

The beautiful stamp, DPs, flowers and nesties are all available from The Stamp Spot - and don't forget to stop in at The Stamp Spot Blog to see what other fabulous inspiration the DT have for you!

xXx

Guest DT for Creatalicious Challenges #4

I was blown away last month when Bec and Cheryl asked me to be their GDT for their 4th challenge at Creatalicious Challenges. I was even more stoked when Cheryl emailed me the brief - it was MADE for me and not really a challenge at all - LOL. What is it you ask - Christmas, Glitter and Snowflakes!!!

My first step was to choose an image to use - not really hard as I had recently bought these adorable digital penguins from Angel's Landing - they are just too cute! I used my Touch and Copic markers to colour them before adding Dazzling Diamonds to all the white areas of their clothes.

Now onto the snowflakes - I machine embroidered the base snowflake in a blue thread that's close to SU's Baja Breeze. I then layered on some Spellbinders snowflakes with alternate layers being treated with Flower Soft and glitter before putting them together with a diamonte brad. And don't forget the embossed snowflake background!!!

A few pale blue rhinestones finishes off the glitter requirement - I just wish once again that glitter would photograph - this really does sparkle IRL. The DP and sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

On a side note - I have been toying with making and selling my embroidered snowflakes - I'd appreciate any expressions of interest to see if it's worth doing!

Now don't forget to pop over to Creatalicious Challenges to check out the rest of the fabulous inspiration from the regular DT and give the challenge a go yourself!

xXx

Cards For A Cause - Search for a Meningitis Vaccine

I have 2 cards for you today using some a couple of very special images. As you know I'm a huge Mo Manning fan and yesterday when I visited Mo's Digital Pencil Too blog I read the sad story of 16 month old Layton John Cleaver who succumbed to meningitis recently - you can read the story HERE. To help raise funds to find a vaccine for this horrible disease, Mo and fellow designer Jim Harker have donated a fabulous digital image each - you get BOTH of these gorgeous stamps for 4 UK pounds - not only a wonderful treat for yourself but together we may help find a way to stop help gorgeous children like Layton from dying. I can tell you I have never bought stamps soo fast my life - if you're interested you can get them HERE.

This first card uses Mo's fabulous image called "Out There". This sweet boy looks set for all sorts of adventures - with his faithful companion by his side to keep him safe. I'm not quite sure how he ended up with these colours - sometimes my colouring just seems to take on a life of it's own. I started off doing his top in a pale blue - but it clashed terribly once I did his shorts. A bit of yellow over the shirt and the whole scheme changed - for the better I think! I couldn't help myself - I added flowers to a boy's card - but the olive green felt flowers and the button centres make it not too girly!!! The DP is from Upsy Daisy. This second card was made using Jim Harker's gorgeous Little Soldier snowman. To me he's a bit of a cross between The Nutcracker and Frosty the Snowman - 2 of my favourite Christmas characters. I've made another snowflake using chunky glitter. The DP and sentiment are from Stampin' Up.

Now I'm heading off to cuddle my kids and hope we can help find a way to stamp out this disease - and many others! It amazes me how the internet and some marvellously talented people can do soo much! Thanx Mo and Jim.

R.I.P Sweet Baby Boy!

xXx

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards Sketch #49

I haven't had much chance lately to play over at Just Christmas and Birthday Card Challenges so I'm rapt I had an opportunity today! This week's sketch is by Karin and I just love it! I have twisted it on it's side though.

The reason I had a chance to stamp was that without any warning the electricity company decided today was the day they needed to replace our connection to the grid! So without power and unable to leave home as they needed access to the garage, it was the perfect chance to craft! I was supposed to be out sourcing blinds or curtains for the room my BIL and his wife will be staying in when they arrive next month from England! Guess what I'm up too tomorrow - LOL.

I've used some DP from Stampin' Up and paired it with Whisper White and Pacific Point CS. The sentiment is also from SU - a retired set called Flaky Friends. The snowman is from last year's Magnolia Christmas collection - I thought he better see ink before my new season snowman gets here - you should check out the new ones at Bizzy Becs - they are sooo cute - it was hard to stop at getting just one of them!

The large snowflake is a nestie and I have covered it with Crystal Iris Chunky Glitter from SU. I may have resigned as a SU demonstrator recently but I still love their products! I have topped these with a plain punched snowflake and a pale blue rhinestone!

Now to work out which one of my friends this one will go to at Christmas - there's a few it might fit - LOL.

xXx

Summer Hits The Stamp Spot

I can't believe Wednesday has come round again! Today is my day for posting my DT card for The Stamp Spot. Since the weather is heating up here in Melbourne I felt this Miss Anya was the perfect choice to ink up! I've added some black stickles on her sunglasses and cut her out with my nesties.

Once again I've used some of the challenge items Marcia popped into our DT kits. I really struggled with the large die cut behind my flower - it was just too flat for my liking!!! Soooo - after staring at it over the past few weeks I thought why not cuttlebug emboss it for some texture - I used the script folder! Much better!!! And then it just seemed easy to place - how funny that such a little thing can help the creative juices flow!

The fabulous DP is from Sassafrass Lass and comes with the beautiful faux stitched edging! Everything is available from The Stamp Spot Online Store with the exception of the punches I used for the sentiment and the flowers.

I love the exotic and Summery feel of this card - even my 11yo son gave this one the thumbs up - LOL

xXx

Anya Ink Challenge #6 - Blue and Orange

Before I talk about this card I'd like to thank everyone for their sweet comments on my last card - I had a bad day that day - you should have seen my workspace - Tildas and paper EVERYWHERE - LOL!!! I think I was just sooo frustrated by the end of it - but I'm glad I finally produced something you liked!

I have also been asked about the swirls and leaves I use - the swirls are a sizzix die and the leaves are McGill punches - email me if you want further info!

Now onto today's card...

Last week we were looking through my stash of cards for a male card - hmmmm - not many there!! I thought this colour challenge from Anya Ink would be the perfect combo to use to start building a collection! I only recently bought this Ian from The Stamp Spot and have been eager to ink him up - he's perfect for the guys in your life!

After I had him all carded up I kept looking at the bare top left corner - if this was a girl's card I would have popped a flower or 2 there - but I was at a loss for what to use for a guy! I decided on leaving it bare as everything I tried just didn't work. Maybe guy's cards need to be simpler - I would appreciate any opinions on this!!!

I do remember one of the senior SU demos telling us at Convention last year that brads are always a good embellishment for male cards - after all - the name BRAD is male so it's kind of a hint - LOL. Maybe that's why roses are great on female cards!!

Here's hoping everyone has a FANTASTIC week - it's certainly starting to feel like Summer is on the way here in Melbourne!!! I am soo NOT a hot weather girl!!!

xXx

Magnolia Down Under Challenge #26 - A Sketch

This fortnight Kellie has a sketch for us and I thought "Great - I LOVE sketches!!" Unfortunately I think my mojo has gone on an early Christmas vacation and I had all sorts of bother getting this done for my deadline!!

I had planned to use my card to send to an 11 year old American girl who survived a home invasion by 4 teenagers who killed her mother and left her for dead - you can read her story and about the wonderful drive to send cards to Jaimie HERE. Unfortunately as my mood deteriorated with my lack of success my card got darker and darker and I have decided NOT to send this one to Jaimie - but I do have another one I made recently that I will send. However, I still wanted to get her story out there in case you too wanted to help out! You can forward your card to the address below...

The DP I used for the background is from Magnolia's Yummy range and is available at the Magnolia Down Under Store. I ended up with one of my favourite older Tildas and lots of cuttlebug embossed panels. I'm still not happy with the final card - but my family liked it and I am sure it's only the preceeding frustrations that have left me unsure of it!

In the meantime I'm sure the rest of the MDUC DT have come up with some fabulous inspiration for you - check them out HERE. Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Kellie with a $10 voucher for the Magnolia Down Under Store!

Wish me luck trying to convince my mojo to come home - LOL.

xXx

Donna's Fabulous Hexagonal Gift Box

The lovely Donna over at Butternut Sage designs has come up with a wonderful tutorial to make this fabulous hexagonal box - check out Donna's beautiful version HERE. I love unusual shaped boxes so I had to pick up the tutorial and give it a go!

I've added a magnetic clip to the inside to hold the top in place - these are from Basic Grey and are the small size - I found them at The Scrapbook Boutique.

I've also sandwiched the ribbon between the base of the box and the outer bottom layer - but you don't have to do this!

When I showed my hubby and DD the finished box they were most impressed - my daughter told me it looked like something you'd buy from The Body Shop!!! High praise indeed - LOL. I'll be making a few more of these - some Christmas ones for teachers for starters!

To give you an idea how big the box is each of the six sides measure 2 1/2" square.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up with the exception of the magnetic closure and satin ribbon.

xXx

Blog Award and a Bit About ME!

Earlier this week I was honoured by 2 extremely talented ladies with a Blog Award - Thanx sooo much Tracey and Jodie - and if you haven't seen there work click on their names and head off for some wonderful eye candy!!!

Now I've been VERY slack in the past about passing awards on - I LOVE getting them but I HATE chosing from the many many talented bloggers out there who to pass them on to. I always go waaayyyy over the limit of people to pass on to and then find I've forgotten someone!!! BUT - this one is a little different - I get to share a bit of myself too - all with one word answers - that's gonna be hard for this little talker - LOL! So here goes......

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your hair? Brunette
3. Your mother? Strong
4. Your father? Deceased
5. Your favorite food? Chocolate

6. Your dream last night? Dunno
7. Your favorite drink? Orange Juice
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. What room are you in? Study
10. Your hobby? Stamping
11. Your fear? Death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Slim - hahahaha
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? Slim
15. Muffins? White Choc and Raspberry
16. Wish list item? House Cleaner
17. Where did you grow up? UK, Switzerland and Australia
18. Last thing you did? Ate Crunchie Bar
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Needs replacing
21. Your pets? Holly
22. Friends? Fabulous

23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Cheeky

25.Missing someone? Dad
26. vehicle? Elantra

27. Something you're not wearing? Socks
28. Your favorite store? Scrapbook

29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When was the last time you laughed? Reading Tracey's answers as I replaced them - oops too many words -LOL
31. Last time you cried? Don't remember
32. Your best friend? Richard
33. One place that I go to over and over? Loo
34. Facebook? Yes
35. Favorite place to eat? Anywhere with nice food!

Well there you go - I tried!!! There's a couple with a few extra words!

Now to pass this on! If you're listed on my side bar as a favourite place to visit or you are a follower of mine - this is for you! Told you I can't decide - LOL

xXx

Double Up!

I'm being a little cheeky this week as I'm busy ferrying my daughter to and from exams and revision visits with her teachers. I'm doubling up my Stamp Spot Wednesday with the current Anya Ink Challenge - hope you don't mind Marcia!!! Anya Ink are asking for paper toling this week - a really fun challenge that can add sooo much depth to your work for just a little bit of effort. Tracey has a wonderful step by step explanation of how to paper tole an image here.

Apologies for my photo - my PC is at the computer doctors and the photo software on my laptop isn't as user friendly - maybe I should just learn to take better photos - LOL!!

You can find this gorgeous Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses DP and the adorable Christmas Sweeties stamps from The Greeting Farm over at The Stamp Spot Store. The bottom snowflake and the fur trim have been given the Polar White Flower Soft treatment - this is also available at the store. I've also added a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds for some snowy sparkle!

xXx

Lisa's 50th - A Month Long Celebration Begins!!!

Do you ever have one of those things stuck in your brain that you are SOOOO sure is right - and then you find out you're WRONG when it's too late!?!?!?! Well that's what I did with my gorgeous friend Lisa's Birthday! Lisa and I have never met - except through the keyboard of our computers and blogs - but she has become a dear friend is such a short time! And she "let" it slip that this year she has a milestone birthday coming up. I popped on facebook and checked out the date - and then remembered it ALL WRONG!!! I sent this to Lisa to arrive for the end of October - unfortunately her birthday isn't for another month - OOOPS!!! I did email her as soon as I realised to tell her to put her Aussie arrival away when it got there but I was tooo late!!!

Lisa has graciously forgiven me and tells me she now has an excuse to start her birthday celebrations early - you go girl!!!

I made this card for her and was then told by my kids that it was too young for a 50 year old - I tried to explain that being 50 didn't mean you couldn't be full of youthful fun and sent it anyway!!! Luckily Lisa loved it so I'm glad I didn't listen to the kids!!!

I've used another gorgeous Mo Manning image and coloured her in blues and yellows - such a fresh colour combo! I've sparkled her wings up as well as popping some glitter on the petals of the largest flower and the sentiment - it looks soo sparkly IRL - just like Lisa!! Some Cuttlebugged "bubbles" for the background, the number 50 and the yellow sizzix swirls and she was ready to send off!!!

Now to remember to wish Lisa a Happy 50th on the RIGHT day - LOL - but in the meantime...

Happy start to your 50th birthday celebrations Lisa!!!!

xXx