Just Made It!!!!

Phew! Finished just in time! After 3 weeks spending every spare moment on this project, I just managed to finish it in time for my little guy to use it. His comment was "Wow that's Awesome Mum!" So, I thought I would share all that hard work with you.

This is my Advent Calandar. It was inspired by this one I saw on Butternut Sage Designs. There is even a video tutorial, if you would like to check it out. Obviously I had to make a few alterations, as we don't yet have the Bigshot here in our Australian Stampin' Up! catalogue. So here is a pic of mine, made using items we do have!

A bit closer

A close up of one of the boxes

A close up of the Faux Metal Star

Project Recipe: (All products used were Stampin' Up! except where stated)

Pre-stretched artist canvas from a discount shop (Chickenfeed for those of you in Tassie)

Craft boxes with lids from a discount shop (they have ovals and circles in Chickenfeed). I attached these to the canvas using Velcro dots so that I can remove them after Christmas and pack them away carefully

Oval cutters (I used Creative Memories ones) to cut the Designer Series paper for the lids, then glazed the lids with Crystal Effects (hopefully this will prevent the DSP from peeling off in the future)

Dashing Designer Series Paper, plus Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, River Rock and Chocolate Chip Cardstock

Chocolate Chip 5/8" ribbon, Real Red ¼" ribbon, Very Vanilla ¼" ribbon, Real Red striped Grosgrain ribbon, Chocolate Chip ¼" ribbon

Simple Serif Mini Alphabet and Numbers, to stamp the days until Christmas (thanks for lending them to me Lynda!) Merry Merry, Baroque Motifs and Seasons of Joy Stamp sets to decorate the boxes and for the faux metal embossing on the Star and the letters C and S of Christmas

Assorted punches, Rhinestone Brads and Hodgepodge Hardware for decorating the lids and displaying the numbers

On Board Loads of Letters and On Board Trimmings. The letters of "Days until" were painted with Real Red re-inker and a paintbrush then triple embossed with a mixture of White and Clear Embossing powders. The letters of "Christmas" were triple embossed with Gold Embossing powder.

Hope you like it, I would love to know what you think! Thanks for stopping by,

Claire

Another One for Christmas!

Hi again,

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to. I found these pics on the blog of a very talented UK Stampin' Up! Demo, Crafty Squirrel. I had a go at recreating the box myself, but could not get the dimensions of the triangle quite right – I have always been spacially challenged, ask any of my maths teachers! Imagine my delight when Crafty Sqirrel posted the link to the templates. You can find them here along with heaps of others on Sara Sandberg's great site.

So, here is my attempt.

Project Recipe: (All products used are, of course, Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Season of Joy (Spring Mini Catalogue), Illuminated (Standard Wheel)

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, River Rock and Dashing Designer Series Paper

Inks: Real Red, Old Olive and Very Vanilla (Craft Ink), Versa Mark

Acessories: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Fire Rhinestone Brads, 1 3/8 " and 1 ¼ " circle punches, Eyelets, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat tool, Stampin' Dimensionals

The red ponsiettas on the cover of the box were made by inking the stamp first in Versa Mark and then in Real Red ink. I then embossed them with clear embossing powder and cut them out. They are mounted on a dimensional with a red rhinestone brad through the centre, and then onto a circle of Old Olive cardstock.

I love this box because it is big enough to place a gift inside, such as jewellery or gourmet chocolates, but pretty enough to hang on the Christmas Tree. Hope you like it as much as I do. Let me know what you think!

Claire

Spinning into Christmas!

Hello!

Back again, thought you'd never hear from me again, didn't you! I just wanted to share a card with you that I have CASE'd from a couple of others that I saw whilst cruising for inspiration on the net. Apologies to the people I cased from, I can't remember where I saw them.
This is a spinner card, the little disc at the bottom spins around when you tilt the card from side to side. It can be quite mesmerizing!

Card Recipe: (All products used, are of course from Stampin' Up!

Stamps: All About Christmas Jumbo Wheel

Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Gold Metallic

Inks: Old Olive, Real Red and Certainly Celery, Versa Mark (for embossing)

Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy, Small Star Punch

After I embossed the All About Christmas design on my Very Vanilla Cardstock, I used sticky post it notes to mask of sections of the design. Once I had masked of a section I sponged ink into it, to create the mosaic type look.

Hope you like it. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by.

Claire

A special Thank you

H i there.
I needed to make a thank you card for my son's soccer Coach, as it was their end of season bbq yesterday. Their coach is a great guy, endlessly patient, and always with a good word for each of the kids, whatever their ability. Whilst I was mulling it over, this card popped into my head fully formed! I just love it when that happens! Unfortunately I didn't have the stamp sets I needed to execute the card, so, a few frantic text messages and a couple of phone calls later, I had the set that I needed on Friday night. Thanks so much for lending it to me Lynda! (Check out Lynda's gorgeous blog at Stampinkins).
I used masking to create the pile of soccer balls and to cluster the team together. The Stamp-a-majig saved my sanity when trying to line up all the arms and legs and heads! The kids are all wearing their soccer strip, which I watercoloured with ink pads and an aqua painter. Their coach is wearing the colours of his beloved Brisbane Lions AFL team – a touch he seemed to appreciate. The best thing about it was the kids all recognized themselves in the card! The goalies by their shirts, the girls by their hairdo's etc. It really was a fun card to make. I hope you like it. Thanks for looking.

Claire.

A cased condolence

Back again. At last… I am just popping in to share a card that I totally "cased" from a stamp artist calling herself cmsuto on Splitcoast Stampers. I don't normally completely "case" cards, but this card had the most beautiful dreamy quality about it. I just had to try and recreate it. As it happens, I had need of a condolence card recently and this card seemed the right one to make.
I used the "spray, ink and smash" technique to create the backround on glossy cardstock. If you would like to try it, click here for a tutorial from "Markie's Mom". The re-inker colours I used were Going Grey, Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. To create the moon I used reverse masking and Whisper White craft ink, sponged again with Going Grey and Elegant Eggplant classic inks. Then I stamped the flowers from the sadly retired Stem Silhouettes and the butterfly from Natural Beauty in black Staz-on Ink. (Those of you with sharp eyes for detail will notice that I masked the border around the butterfly to prevent it stamping!) The butterflies were coloured with Elegant Eggplant, Brocade Blue and Regal Rose markers. I finished by matting my feature panel on Perfect Plum and making the base card Basic Grey.

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

Claire

Bandanna Technique

Wow! Two posts in one day! Well, there was something else I wanted to share with you because it is so cool and so easy.

I was mooching around on the web looking for some inspiration for my new stamps from the Spring Mini Catalogue, from Stampin' Up! I happened across this card by Barbara Hardeman on Splitcoast Stampers. The card was made using a technique I had not come across before – the Bandanna Technique. The stamp set Barbara has used, True Friend, lends itself perfectly to the "bandanna look" and happened to be one of my new sets!

I decided to use this as inspiration for my card to pop in with my Spring Mini Catalogue mail out. So I searched the web to find instructions on the Bandana Technique. It is actually very easy. Ink your stamps with black ink, I used Staz on, stamp your stamps on Whisper White cardstock. Sponge over the colours of your choice. Then highlight areas of the design with a white gel pen. Too easy! Anyway, for the sample, I have made here, I decided to go with a more traditional bandanna look and just use Real Red, so I brayered over my colour instead of sponging it.

Hope you like it! Let me know what you think.

Thanks for dropping by, Claire.

Too Many Boxes!

Hello, again! Long time between posts even for me! Life rips along at it's usual pace and as usual I seem to have to peddle twice as fast as anyone else just to keep up, let alone get ahead of the game.

Today I have some cute little boxes to share with you. My Stampin' Up! upline, Mae, kindly shared a link she had found to a blog showing the directions for making these gorgeous boxes. You can find Shelly's blog by clicking here.

My gorgeous girlfriend had a sparkly party for her 5 year old coming up. Having only a son I rarely get the chance to play with girly stuff. So I offered to make these as party boxes for the guests. I re-sized Shelly's original template to fit in party goodies. They were a very big hit!

The little girl's boxes were made using the Perfect Princess stamp set (thanks Lynda for lending it to me!), colours from the Soft Subtles colour family and, of course, lots of glitter. The little boy's boxes were made using Stampin Up!'s East Coast Prep designer series paper and the co-ordinating cardstock colours Real Red, More Mustard and Wild Wasabi. For the three older children attending (2 big brothers and an older cousin) I used the Outlaw designer series paper, the Wanted stamp set and Sage Shadow, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla co-ordinating cardstock. Hope you like them. Thanks for stopping by.

Claire