Lovely as a Tree

It was my mother's partner's birthday last Saturday and this is the card I made. Nothing too difficult. I've used an old favourite set - Lovely as a Tree. This set is perfect for the mere males in your lives. 

Stamp Set: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais, French Foliage, On Your Birthday (retired)
Card Stock: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Early Espresso, Old Olive
Accessories: Jumbo Eyelet (retired)
Tools: Crop-a-Dile (retired), Distress Tool, Aqua Pen, Word Window Punch

We went out to dinner to celebrate Barry's birthday and had lots of laughs. We always enjoy ourselves when we get together and it made me realise how much I miss my family. I really should make the effort to visit more often. Of course, there's an added bonus of having my special friend Brett, who lives down that way too. We've been seeing each other for almost a year now and, what a wonderful whirlwind time it's been!

Have a happy weekend everyone and I hope to see you back here soon. 

Thanks so much Callena (from NZSU) for choosing this card as Pic of the Week. It was a lovely surprise to arrive home to :-)

More Swaps..

As promised, I've got some more swaps to show you from last weeks Stamp Camp in Rotorua. This one was made by Jacque Pedersen (a case from Carolyn Bennie). It features some of my favourite sets - Nature Walk and French Foliage.  

Stamp Set: Nature Walk, French Foliage
Card Stock: Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Designer Paper: First Edition
Ink: Early Espresso, Sahara Sand, More Mustard
Accessories: Early Espresso Bakers Twine, Decorative Label Punch, Antique Brads.


And, isn't this swap adorable! It was made by Narelle Hoggard and she's also used one of my favourite stamp sets Creative Elements.  You may have noticed that I have lots of favourite sets.....lol.  Narelle got the idea for the coffee cup from Brenda Quintana but amended it to her own dimensions. How clever is that!

Stamp Set: Creative Elements
Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Round Tab Punch, Blossom Punch. 


I hope your weekend is going great and you've had time to do a little crafting. 

Swaps!

I'm so pleased I decided to make swaps for our Stamp Camp last weekend - even if it did make my week crazier than usual. This is one of my favourite swaps made by Sharon de Vos. Having said that though, all the swaps were gorgeous and it's a reminder of how many wonderfully talented ladies we have out there.  

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Card Stock: Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Beau Chateau
Ink: Soft Suede
Accessories: 1/2" Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla Seam Binding Ribbon, Jewellery Tag Punch, Fun Flowers Die, Big Shot, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Vintage Trinkets. 


And, here's a lovely card made by Rhonda Fawcett.  

Stamp Set: Nature's Nest, French Foliage, Thank You Kindly
Card Stock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Riding Hood Red, Pacific Point
Ink: Sahara Sand, Riding Hood Red, Pacific Point
Accessories: Small Oval Punch, 1 3/8" Square Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, Crop-o-dile, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Stripes Embossing Folder, Big Shot. 


We've had beautiful weather here in Auckland these last few days.  I hope it stays for the weekend because the sunshine always brightens my mood.  Does it do that to you?

Scallop Easel Card

This was the second card that we made at class last weekend, which was very popular. I've cased it but unfortunately, don't remember who from.  Don't you agree that very vanilla, cherry cobbler and basic black look quite striking together. 

Stamp Sets: Vintage Vogue, French Foliage, Elements of Style
Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler
Ink: Black Staz On, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Scallop Circle Bigz Die, Circle Scissors Plus, Little Leaves Sizzlets Die, Boho Blossoms Punch, 5 Petal Flower Punch, Basic Pearls.

My oldest daughter Nicole, is moving into an apartment in the city today, which is all very exciting.  Well, she's excited and I've got a mixture of excitement for her and sadness for me. I know that she will love it and it's in a great location. Only a 10 minute dawdle from the University that she's attending, so it makes perfect sense that should move... so I keep telling myself. If she was to live at home, it would take her 1½ hours each way to get there (not due to the distance but because of our appalling public transport system). Now that time can be spent doing something more productive - like working to pay the rent or studying ;) I feel confident that they won't have a diet of just noodles and cereal, so long as their budget can manage. Here's hoping anyway... And, they can always come home in the weekends to get a dose of vegetables and healthy cuisine.  

More French Foliage

I don't know what it is - but I tend to dig out a stamp set that I've not used for ages and then, I can't seem to put it down. Such is the case with French Foliage.  Here are two cards that I've cased from Sue Madex, a talented demonstrator from Australia. These are both clean and simple and didn't take very long at all to make. 

This one doesn't have a message on the front, so will be ideal to keep in my emergency stash :)

Stamp Set: French Foliage, Fabulous Phrases
Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch.


Happy Friday everyone!  Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you again soon.  

French Foliage

This card is yet another CASE (copy and share everything) - because truth be known, that's my speciality.  I would love to have time to create all my cards from scratch, but that's not to be, for the time being. Some people get hung up about it, but not me - I'm shameless and am just pleased that I have time to do what I can, when I can.  


This card uses French Foliage and is very Autumny {of course that's a word } to match our changeable weather we've been having lately. Whatever has happened to Spring?  I'm loving River Rock (first time ever I've used this colour) mounted on Soft Suede and have cased this card from Cindy Hall a demonstrator from the USA. My card looks very different because she's used the Gently Falling stamp set, which we don't have, so I've substituted it with French Foliage. Once again, I think this would be suitable for either a male or female. 

Stamp Set: French Foliage, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Soft Suede, River Rock, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Soft Suede
Accessories: Gold Brads, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Soft Suede Taffeta Ribbon, Sponges, Spritzer Tool, Soft Suede Stampin' Marker. 

It's the 11th day of the 11th month in 2011 today and not only is it Armistice Day (also known as Veteran's Day), but it would also have been my dad's birthday.  Sadly, he passed away 8 years ago - RIP Dad. We miss you heaps xxx
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by! 

Play Time

I hope you're managing to keep warm, despite the miserable weather in Auckland today.  


I had great intentions to case a card that I loved the look of, but the end result is nothing like what I'd seen. I quite like this card and it hardly took any time at all to create, which is another bonus. Even the little splodge in the bottom corner isn't visible.  Don't you love it, when it all comes together so easily.   

Stamp Set: French Foliage, Because I Care
Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla
Ink: More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze
Accessories: Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Paper Cutter and Scoring Blade. 

I hope you've all had a happy 'hump' day. 

Autumn Days

I played with the new French Foliage stamp set from the Autumn/Winter mini over the weekend. It is a set that can be made into a masculine or feminine card, so is very versatile.  I wanted to use my water colour paper but couldn't find it - (I'd obviously put it in a safe place) so used Very Vanilla cardstock instead. I sprayed this lightly with water and then stamped the French writing and three different leaves randomly over it in Cajun Craze, More Mustard and So Saffron - real Autumn colours. The colours a bled a bit, which was the effect I was after. After I tucked the linen thread behind the collage piece and adhered the brads, I was a bit stumped and didn't quite know what I was going to do next. I'm happy with the end result though and will pop this away in my little emergency stash. 

Stamp Set: French Foliage, Short and Sweet
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze
Ink: So Saffron, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Peach Parfait
Accessories: Linen Thread, 1" Circle Punch, Old Olive Designer Button (Brights pack), Old Olive brads (Brights pack), Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots.