Woodland view

So many wonderful products to play with in SU's Holiday Catalogue!  I was a bit late putting in my order so had seen quite a few of the new items used by others.  Among my favourites was the Woodland Embossing folder.  I loved the Festive Fireplace stamp set and dies mainly because of the little cat, but had no idea what I was going to do with them until I sat down with my new goodies.  Initially I thought I would have the cat watching a bird in the trees, but my birds were all a bit too big ..... some time later (read that as "few hours") and this was the result.  The trees are seen through the hole in the brick wall and the butterflies have replaced the bird. 

In hind sight I realise that I should have used an extra layer of foam tape between the trees and the wall to give a bit more dimension, but I am happy with how it turned out and it really does look better in real life than in my photo!

Luckily, I had all day to play with my new stash and got a few other bits done as well.

Thanks for popping in,
Mary

SU Hello Life Project Kit

I had the perfect spot for this frame but the Crushed Curry didn't appeal to me so I used the retired Poppy Parade.
With no ribbon or twine left in that colour to make the pom poms I used the Spiral Die to make roses instead. 
Such a fun project to make and well worth the effort as it looks great.

Cheers for now,

Mary

A suitcase full of feathers and butterflies

I enjoyed making this suitcase filled with greeting cards, gift cards and tiny little note cards for a friend's 70th birthday.

Suitcase closed above showing the beautiful SU designer paper

 

 and open to show some of the contents

 

these were  3' x 3" note cards

and the gift cards fitted into a little pocket

 

I was very pleased with how this one turned out,

cheers,

Mary

The end of the drought ?

After a lapse of some six weeks I finally made a card.  I have been raiding my box of cards for recent birthdays, but didn't have one for a special friend.  It took some time to get back into the mood, but with inspiration from a lovely card by Christine Blain, here it is:

 

and a close up of that glossy sparkle:

 

The stamp is "Best Thoughts" from Stampin' Up and I have water coloured it with "Lovely Lilac" - a retired colour now but just perfect for my friend.  I then coated it with Glossy Accents and sprinkled a little Dazzling Diamonds on while it was still wet.

 

Yesterday, I heard that neighbours were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary and that certainly required a card.  Their wedding theme all those years ago was "Apple Blossom Time" and that was the music they danced the waltz to.  With not a lot of time, I decided on a shaker card and visualised the tree with apple blossom falling from it.  I had a container of "Flower Soft" which I thought would be perfect, but which turned out to be far too dense to see the tree behind it, so I moved on to glitter.  Unfortunately my pink glitter was extremely fine and covered the window sheet totally, so I punched out some tiny pink glitter hearts and popped them inside.  In hindsight, I see that I should have put more hearts in, but the lady was delighted with it and that's the main thing.

 

 

The stamp sets I used were Lovely as a Tree, Memorable Moments and Lovely Lace, and the card stock was Pink Pirouette and Whisper White.  The Window Frames were used to cut the window.

 

Here's hoping I get to blog a bit more often,

Mary

A suitcase of cards

I was watching a video from a Stampin' Up conference and one of the presenters showed a lovely project she had made to display new product.  You can see Becky Roberts' suitcase here.  I couldn't wait to make one!  Unable to purchase her tutorial, I set about working out the measurements myself and  made my prototype out of retired card and paper.  I was quite happy with the finished suitcase/box and rather than waste all that effort, decided it would make a great gift for an 80th birthday.    Having already decorated the box with the retired papers I had a bit of a challenge making mostly feminine cards to fill it, but I think it is OK.

 

 

The gift tags;

 the 3 X 3 cards and envelopes.

and  a few of the cards:

 

 

and a shot of the entire contents:

 

 

 
I hope you like it as I certainly enjoyed making it.
Mary

Reading Books

My Grandson asked me to make him a new bookmark.  I was quite surprised that he still had the "Thomas the Tank Engine" one I made when he was a toddler, so decided to make something special.  As he loves reading, I thought a stack of books would be good and looked online for ideas and fell in love with this:

Luckily I could read the watermark and found Vicky's blog.  I spent many hours watching her videos on art journaling and have since spent two very long afternoons with my grandchildren, each of us commencing/creating our own journals - learning as we go.  It's been a lot of fun learning about Gesso and modelling paste and all those lovely distress paints.

Although I have not made the bookmark yet, I did end up casing her art journal page for my Grandson's birthday card, using my card making supplies.

 

 

This is a terrible photo, ( will try to get another). 

 

I also made him a Freddo Box card in his favourite flavour - peppermint.

Thanks for popping in.

Mary

The Amazing Advent Calendar 2014

 

My Daughter never fails to amaze me with the gifts she chooses, not only for myself, but for the family and her many friends.  Any gift received from Susan will have been especially chosen for you alone, and will be special. 

After many years of delightful, always generous, sometimes hilarious, often very hilarious, but always very welcome gifts, this year's gift must take the prize as the most ingenious!

This year, she gave me an Advent Calendar - yes, there were chocolates, but I can assure you that it most definitely was not one of those cardboard ones with a chocolate each day.

I wanted to document this for my own sake (and for some friends who did not get to see it in real life) and decided to do so on my blog, but I must warn you it will be a long post and many of you will probably be not in the least interested as it does not contain anything in the way of card making.

So with that warning .....  here it is:

 

 ... on Day One, the little drawer held a quote from A. A. Milne, and the scroll on the right contained the poem "King John's Christmas", which my Granddaughter read out to me very beautifully. 

A.A. Milne was a favourite  author when my children were growing up, and indeed some years ago, my Daughter gave me  "Now we are sixty" and "Now we are sixty (and a bit)" by Christopher Matthew based on Milne's books.

 

I probably should have pointed out that many of the drawers held personal memories and the gift was chosen to tie in with the memory.

 

Day Two and the drawer held beautiful origami hearts made by Susan - a new skill for her to learn:

 

 

Day Three: A Christmas Tree Brooch sat inside the drawer and there was a lovely LED tree light as well.

 

Day Four held a tiny paper snowflake and behind the chest of drawers was a much larger one, reminding me of an earlier Christmas when the children helped us to make so many that the house the house was filled with them.

Day Five and the gift inside was a tea bag with a note that read:

There was also a voucher for a visit to the Tea Co - my current favourite little tea shop.

 

The drawer for Day Six held a tiny photograph (5 x 3.5 cm) of a very memorable Christmas lunch 1987, when I managed to set fire to the tablecloth while attempting to "flame" the Christmas pudding.  In fright, I sat back onto the chair, which then collapsed under me, and you see my children helping me up while my beloved husband took photos of the event!!! 

The gift that went with this memory was a plastic tablecloth !!

 

 

Onto Day Seven and a gorgeous little lantern was the gift to suit the "Star Light, star bright" poem, with a special message on the reverse.

Day Eight - Yumm!! the gift card says it all - home made with love!  Another first for Susan.  Delicious gluten free shortbreads - all for me!   The tiny photograph showed a previous Christmas table laden with all our family's traditional  food.

 

Day Nine held Christmas tree  earrings to match the brooch from Day Three, and a very true comment from Charlie Brown.

 

Day Ten and the bells are beginning to ring - loved the words and the gift of bells which made an impromptu "wreath" on my front door.

 

 Day Eleven saw the first of the chocolate gifts with a tiny Lindt bear in the drawer and this larger boot filled with Lindt chocolates hiding behind the calendar.

 

On Day Twelve there was a list of Mothers' sayings.

Also a book called "Family Matters".

Day Thirteen and Pooh popped in with Piglet and a lovely Rose Quartz stone.

Day Fourteen had a poem from the Grinch which talked about feet and an emery board, so of course I received a voucher for a pedicure.

 

 

Day Fifteen produced a paper clip angel - and another new skill.

More goodies arrived on Day 16 with a gift set of a hot chocolate kit.

What on earth could be the significance of the cotton buds on Day 17 ? Oh of course - an Ear Candling voucher ....

 ..with appropriate message as well!

Day 18 - DVD - "Cuban Fury" and a reminder to Dance!

 

On the Nineteenth day the drawer contained gorgeous heart shaped emery boards and little clippers and a voucher for a manicure!

 

Day 20 - the gift was a large family portrait and a collection of smaller ones.

 

 

Day 21 - a voucher for a full massage !!

 

Day 22 - a voucher for a High Tea Party.

The gift with the voucher was this very cute teapot and canister.

 

Day 23 - WOW! - My very  own gluten free and fructose free Christmas pudding - and home made by my Daughter.  Oh my, it was delicious!  Susan's first attempt at Christmas puddings were amazing and both family and friends were the lucky recipients - I think the total was around 14!

 

 Not sure that this was my pudding, but it did look the same.

 

Day 24 - a beautiful poem by Tennyson - "The Eve of Christmas"

 

Day 25 - Merry Christmas!!

 

 

How very true that is!

Thank you Susan for such a brilliant Christmas gift!