Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish all my viewers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Thank you for checking my blog, and leaving comments throughout the past year.  It has been a tough year for everyone, and I truly, madly, deeply hope that next year is much better for us all!  Stay safe and have a fabulous Christmas Season from me to you! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

More Christmas Bits!

 

OMG!  I am still making Christmas cards!  These three are all made using the SU Merriest Moments stamp/die and cut and emboss folder.  I love this set and am having a blast making cards with it!  These will be part of next years Christmas cards. A friend came and bought one today, and YES I forgot to photograph it!  Oh well, I will make another one!

This card below, is my favourite one I have made so far.  I just love the colours!  (My colours) I sponged some white ink on the embossed and die cut flower frame, and it has made the lilac card look softer.  I like it. There is also some glitter all over it which is hard to see on here.

Below is another white on white card.  Very pain and simple.

Ok, this piece of plastic pipe has a story behind it.  Let me begin...I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus.  I could see the bus in the distance.  Down the hill behind me I could hear a car with a very noisy trailer and things were bouncing and crashing around.  As the trailer got close I turned around to see a large cardboard box and some plastic bits come flying off the trailer, heading straight for me.  The bus was still off in the distance.  I quickly jumped out of the way as this plastic pipe whizzed past me missing my legs by a cats whisker, and into the bus shelter.  There were boxes and bits all over the road, so I quickly picked them up so the bus didn't run them over and get a  flat tire.

The bus arrived and I go on and went shopping.

When I  got home, I noticed the box and the plastic bathroom fittings were all still in the bus shelter.  I bought them home.  (Of course I did, I'm a Magpie!)

So the piece of pipe, which is very solid - just as well it didn't hit my leg when it came flying off the trailer because it would have broken my leg or foot or both, sat in the carport until today. 

So I decided it was going become a "Santa"!

And here he is!  He is about 12 1/2inches in height and about 6 inches across.  His beard and hair are made from a mop  head I bought from the Op Shop for .50c, (brand new) and I deconstructed it.  I cut a piece of red felt for his hat and coat and hot glued it all together.  I stuffed his hat with some polyester fill, and made him some feet from a piece of stiff black felt.  A red pom-pom for his nose, and a grey belt around his waist, two wobbly eyes, polyester fill around his hat, 2 bells on his hat,   and he was done!  Below is the back view of him.

Here he is sitting with some of my other Christmas decorations.  So that's the story of the pipe that fell off the trailer and almost hit me!  I was not amused at the time, as the driver of the car/trailer didn't stop and had no idea he'd lost half his load.  His loss, my gain!

Above is a photo of Santa and some other Christmas bits.  The tree has lights at night.

Ok, that's me for today, one more day until Santa slides down my chimney...

Thanks for dropping by!  Have a SUNSHINEA day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

Merriest Moments Cards.

These cards and tag were made today, in between eating cake, muffins and other yummy treats!  (Oh, and a small glass of Baileys!) The colours on the card above make me feel like I should be drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows, and sitting in front of a nice cozy fire, with my fluffy pajama's on!  It's the colours!

A quick tag, above, made from some scraps of card that were on my desk.

I like this white on white card above.  There's something about it that says "clean and fresh."  It's a very simple card with no embellishments, which was challenging for me because I love my bling!  As I said before, I just love this Merriest Moments stamp set.

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

Happy Birthday To Me!

 Yay!  It's my Birthday today!  My new SU Merriest Moments stamp/die and cut and emboss folder arrived yesterday and below are some cards I made with it! I absolutely love this set, there are sooo many ways to use it, and not just for Christmas cards.  The card below is white on white ad is a little tricky to photograph, so I hope you can see the details of the white embossed piece.  So pretty IRL!

Oops, the card below was made by a different SU stamp/die set, called Christmas Season.  I love this set too!  I used non traditional colours on this card.  I like how it turned out!  Who says Christmas cards HAVE to be traditional colours??!  Not me!

Another card made using the SU Merriest Moments set.  Love the gold embossing!

Above is a smaller slim line card - made into a slim line one because of a smudge on the bottom part of the card:-(  So annoying when that happens!  Below I have cut and embossed  piece of black card stock and stamped and die cut some pale pink flowers.  The sentiment is also from the Merriest Moments set. 

         

Last but not least is Romeo-Valentino whose Birthday was yesterday!  He ad been drinking some water and when he sat up he had a tiny drop of water on his chin, and also on one of his whiskers! So cute!

Ok, thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

$2 Shop Creations!

I made this from a pizza tray and some Christmas flowers all from the $2 Shop!  I also added some tiny batter operated Fairy lights.  I made two of these yesterday.  Below you can see it with the Fairy lights on.  Much prettier at night!  I disguised the battery container behind a red bow.

To put it all together I used my hot glue gun.  Lots of fun and a bit messy with the glue gun! Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

Last Minute Christmas Cards and Gifts!

 I had a very busy day yesterday.  In the morning I put my Christmas cake in the oven to cook.  It's a big cake and takes four hours on a low heat to cook.  While that was cooking I prepared a Moroccan Beef Curry with rice and vegetables into my slow cooker and put that on to cook.  Then my new chair I had purchased arrived and needed assembling.  It was HEAVY and being tiny it was a challenge to get it together, but I managed with a little help (NOT!) from Romeo!  He was very interested in it and needed no invitation to try it out.  He jumped on it as soon as I threw the cushions on it!  (In a cats eye, all things belong to cats!) In between all the cooking and chair assembling I did manage to make some cards and gifts for Christmas!

Both the cards, above and below, were made using SU stamp/die set called Christmas Season.  I am having a lot of fun with this set and there are a gazillion ways to use it!  It could easily be used to make any kind of card, not just Christmas ones.

I made these little treat bags using an SU Mini Treat Bag die set.  Quick and oh-so-easy to make using dsp or any kind on fancy paper.  I ought some bags of mini candy canes and I put four canes into cellophane bags and then put them into the bags.  The flower on the bag below is made of some shiny silver card.  The die/embossing folder is from Tim Holtz.  The DSP is from SU and feels kind of fuzzy - I like it!

I made several of these bags and filled them with candy canes.  I bought them thinking they were the taller candy canes.  I had a project in mind for them, but when I saw they were tiny I had to change plans.  I had the treat bags on my desk so decided to use those to make some gifts.

I have given some to couriers when they drop off things, just to say thank you for delivering my things.  Some I will sell and others will be added to Christmas gifts.

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

"I Saw Santa!"

Every year at this time, "Santa" drives around all the streets in Titirangi, on the back of a fire engine.  He throws out lollies to all the kids.  First comes the white fire van (above) which is playing loud Christmas music, this alerts people that Santa is about to drive past.

In the photo above, if you enlarge it an look closely at the brown fence, you can see some of the lollies he has thrown to some kids across the road.  Santa waves to everyone and ells out Merry Christmas as e drives past.

They use one of the older fire engines for Santa's drive by.

 With a final wave, some more lollies, and a "Merry Christmas", "Santa" is gone for another year.

Santa driving around the neighbourhood on his fire engine is a long standing tradition.  I can remember it from my early childhood.  

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

"Christmas Season" Stamps.

I used SU stamp set, "Christmas Season" to make this card.  Such a fun and versatile stamp/die set.  I don't enjoy colouring at the moment, so to be able to used my coloured ink pads for this was a bonus! (And one reason I bought the set!)  I stamped and die cut all the pieces first, then arranged them on the card.  Once I had them where I wanted, I adhered them to the card using Art Glitter Glue.  (It doesn't have glitter in it, that's just the name.

I added a few tiny stars, and a few self adhesive gold sequins, as well as the label, and the card was done.  Such a fun set of stamps/dies to use.

It has been SO very humid here and yesterday was no exception.  I'm struggling with the heavy humidity at the moment, but am still trying to make cards!

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

New Stamps New Cards!

I'm back with some new cards!  The treat bag above was made using some SU dies - Mini Treat Bag, or something like that!  The card below, fits inside the bag.  The card below is small and I used a SU Whimsy die around the edge.  Hard to see on here but it is there.  The die has some kind of wiggly lines that just perforate the card.  It looks good in real life!  The Deer is a little wooden ornament that I stamped with a brown ink pad.

The card below was made using an SU stamp/die set called, Christmas Season.   also used the stamps/dies o the mini treat bag a the top of this post.  So much fun!

I think I made some of these cards below a couple of years ago, but thought I would make another one as I had all the bits already cut out and read to be assembled.

is fisy card below is one I made using one of the SU stamp sets I got for $5 at my local Hospice shop!  The big fish had some glossy accents on him, as well as a sprinkling of gold glitter.  The aqua coloured strip is done using my scrapper with some water colour ink.  I think it was a re-inker  used.

These last two photos are of a set of three scrapers I bough from the $2 Shop.  I added some self adhesive velcro strips in different widths to give me more options when using them to swipe ink on my cards.

It has been really humid here lately and I am finding it hard to create.  I can tolerate the heat but the humidity really knocks me off my feet.  I have struggled to create and have a couple of special Christmas cards yet to create.  I have found the best time for me to create is early morning as it is a bit cooler then.

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

Christmas Is Coming!

To make the top (and last) card, I cut out the triangle shape and used the negative as a template.  I sponged yellow, peach and orange to get the colours.  Once the colours were down I stamped the greeting, and lastly added the gold star and other sparkly bits.

The card above is much prettier in real life.  You can't see the colours too well in this photo.  The circle has glitter sprinkled over the top, which somewhat mutes the colours.  Much better IRL!  The stamp is from an old SU set.

 I made a mini treat bag using an SU die set.  The card is the same as the first one, except this card is smaller so it fits into the treat bag.

As I said in another post, I do have some Snarkys sitting on my desk.  They need some colouring in, and to be honest, I am not all that keen on coloring at the moment.  I just find it a chore to have to sit and do it.  But have patience with me, I will try to get them done soon!  I have a black belt in partial arts!  I have lot's of art stuff half finished!  

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

A Weird but Fun Tip!

Above is a photo of my plastic scraper.  It measures just a smidgen over six inches wide, and is four and one quarter in height.  On the top I have stuck a piece of self adhesive Velcro - the soft fluffy bit, not the loop side.  Stick the Velcro as close as possible to the edge of the scraper as this means you get better ink coverage on the card.  Place the Velcro too far back and you will be holding the scraper at a funny (and possibly uncomfortable!) angle.

If you put some ink along the Velcro then drag it across a sheet of card, you can easily and quickly color the card!  I used red ink then gold ink over the top.  Before you use a new colour, just rinse the scraper and the in washes right off the Velcro.  So quick and easy to color card stock!  I will make a card front using the piece I did.  My local $2 Shop sells plastic scrapers almost identical to this one, three for $2!  So if you want to try this, go and check out your local Dollar Store and have some fun!

That's all for today - I think?!  Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

A Busy Day!

 

As the heading says, I've had a busy time!  I made these over the weekend, most of them were done  yesterday.  I made the next three cards using some dies from a SU stamp/die set, called, "Frosted Gingerbread."  So much fun and you can use the stamps/dies in so many different ways.  The stamped words on the top card are from Lavinia Stamps.

Butterflies, Butterflies and more Butterflies!  I made them from a die that cuts and embosses at the same time. It's a Tim Holtz embosslits die.  Making the Butterfly cards was a bit quicker because I already had the Butterflies already cut out.

The stamped words on te card above are from Suzanne Canon.  She does such beautiful calligraphy and has it made into rubber stamps.  Such stunning quality.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm pooped out!  My brain is frazzled from all that card making! 

I have some Snarky's on my desk, just waiting to be finished.  I am hoping to get them done sometime this week!

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!