But wait, there's more....

As promised, here are the remaining swaps I received at our WOW PaperKRafters Team Training last Sunday.

This card is from my dear friend and sideline Judy B.  She's used Jolly Holiday designer paper with the Bird punch and the Perfect Punches set. I think this makes for a stunning combination. 

And, this lovely card was from Claire Hardman. Claire is relatively new to our group but is one talented lady!  The only stamp she's used is the message from Many Merry Messages. She's cut out her own template and made the Christmas tree by sponging. And the curtains are made by using punches. Isn't it super cute!

Delightful Decorations

As mentioned earlier in the week - we had our WOW PaperKRafters Team Training in the weekend. These are some of the swaps I received from my very talented team mates. I love the Delightful Decorations stamp set and the co-ordinating punch. There are so many things that can be done with it. 

Here is our illustrious leader Karen's swap, which I really love. Because we were exceedingly good (we always are... honestly), she taught us how to make one of these sidestep cards, which she'd learnt earlier from her upline Jacque. It's just like one big, happy family, sharing and swapping ideas, tips and techniques.  

Here's the one that Sally made. She's mixed some shimmer paint with some pacific point reinker and then sponged directly onto the delightful decorations stamp. Isn't it gorgeous!  

Sarah, (one of our newer members of the team, who is also exceedingly talented) has used Delightful Decorations as well and Heard from the Heart, which has a lovely Christmas message. The baubles are embossed which is stunning in real life. Unfortunately my photo's don't do any of these cards justice.

Wasn't I spoilt! There are still two swaps to show you, which I'll post in the next day or two.

12 Weeks today...

Did you realise that there are only 12 weeks today, until the big one? Christmas Day, that is! What a frightening thought. It's a though there is a time thief out there, stealing our time from us. To me, it feels like it should still be somewhere around the middle of the year.

Anyway, in preparation for Christmas - this was another card we made at my class last weekend. Don't you love the simplicity of it?  The colour combo - Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White is very striking. Cherry Cobbler is such a deep, rich colour and reminds me of mulled wine.

And, many thanks to my dear friend and sideline Sally for lending me her stamp set and punch, as mine hadn't arrived in time for the class. Whatever would I do without you?

Stamp Set: Delightful Decorations, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Ornament punch, Clear Rhinestone Brad, Dimensionals

Happy stampin'

 

CIA - Christmas in August

This was the Christmas Bauble card I demonstrated on Saturday to a lovely group of 50 ladies (it wasn't all at once - that would be way too scary for me!). It was our team's annual CIA event which was a fun day, with four projects, spot prizes and a yummy afternoon tea. The idea for my project was inspired by Teneale Williams who is an amazing Australian demonstrator. She's had loads of projects published in magazines and is very famous in the card making world. Check out her blog here.

Can you see the sliding door on the side? This is so that the card doesn't have to be torn apart to get to the jellybeans.

If you missed out on attending our CIA event on Saturday and are keen to learn how to make this - contact me HERE and I can show you how to do so, when it's convenient to you.

Stamps: Heard from the Heart, Baroque Motifs (on the inside of the card)

Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Ridinghood Red
Cardstock: Whisper White, Ridinghood Red, Kiwi Kiss
DSP: Kiwi Kiss 
Punches: 1 3/4" Circle, Round Tab
Accessories: Clear Rhinestone Brad, Ridinghood Red striped 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Circle Scissors plus, Glass mat, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sweet Treats cup, Stampin' Write Journaler

A Christmas/Thank you card

My daughter asked me to make her a Christmas/Thank You card to give to Mrs Ferguson who is the canteen lady Nicole has been working with at school during lunch times, for the last 3 years. Normally I would encourage Nicole to make the card herself, but she's been busy studying and getting ready for her exams next week, so I was happy to have an excuse to play. Thanks Mrs F for being a great support person and giving Nicole a wonderful experience in food handling and customer service. You've also been a awesome role model and she's thoroughly enjoyed her time spent with you!  The free lunch on Fridays had nothing to do with it either... And, a big thank you from me too!!  Are you sure you won't part with that delicious muesli slice recipe??  The colours I used for the card are a replica from the gift card holder I made at the Extravaganza last weekend. They work very well together especially with the hint of brushed metallic silver cardstock for the scallop edge and scallop circle.

Christmas Card Class Part II

I held my second Christmas card class last weekend and these were the cards we made (2 each of the 3 designs). The card on the right used the Tree Trimming stamp set from the Spring Mini Catalogue and is very reasonably priced at $28.95.  Items in this catalogue are only available until the end of the month. I cased the card from my very talented upline, Karen. You can view her blog here.  There are so many great designs using these baubles, so if you are interested let me know and I'll email you some of them.  It's quite hard to see from the photo, but the little bows have been tied using the linen thread. A very cute idea!

 

The card on the left was cased from Patrice Halliday-Larsen which was the swap I received at our last big team training. I think it's soooooo adorable and just love it!  I'm sorry that I couldn't do the card justice and tried several times to use my brayer but got a disastrous result, so I resorted to Rudolph being mounted on Going Grey CS which gives a similar effect of Rudolph's nose glowing in the dark. 
 
The middle card I created myself (which I think is amazing, that I have found the time to do so ~ admittedly, it was somewhere between midnight and 2am one night) although the layout is quite common. The Christmas tree is from the Snow Swirled stamp set ($53.95 for 6 stamps) and is stamped in silver and clear embossed.  I've used a green Rhinestone Brad from the Circle Ice set ($23.95 for 84 brads) on top of the tree which is quite effective.

What a fun weekend I had!

It was a busy and very productive weekend for me!!  Firstly, we had big team training on Saturday at my uplines upline ~ Jacque's place, which was doubly good because not only did we do swaps (where you make a whole lot of one project and then swap it for one of everyone else's), we also made two make n' takes, which I love doing. It makes a nice change to be the student rather than the teacher.

As many of you know, I had a Christmas Card class planned for Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe how organised I was and I had the projects all sorted, cut and prepared on the Friday night. Well, after our team swapping on Saturday ~ I decided to change two of my three projects and CASE (copy and share everything) two of the swaps because they were sooooo awesome!!  I swear the swaps are getting better and better each time and we've got a heap of talented ladies in our group. It's a very easy card to make using the reverse masking technique.  

So then, because I decided to change what we were doing, I was up till after 2am Sat night preparing and cutting etc. I'm a sucker for punishment, that's for sure! Fortunately, I'm a bit of a night owl so there were no midnight mishaps. Here is my favourite card of the three that we made on Sunday, at the Christmas Card class. My bow looks overly big in this photo (I'm no photographer that's for sure!!), but is fine in the flesh. I cased it from the wonderfully talented Kristine McNickle. You can view her blog HERE

Stamps: Season of Joy (113023), So Swirly Jumbo Wheel (109683).
Cardstock: Night of Navy (106277), Bashful Blue (106565), Whisper White (106549).
Ink: Night of Navy (102977), Bashful Blue (105209).
Accessories: Night of Navy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.
Tools: 1-1/4" Circle Punch (104403),
1" Circle Punch (109046), Dotto (103305), Sponge Daubers (102896), Stamping Sponges (101610), Mat Pack (105826), Mini Glue Dots (103683).