Nature's Nest

I've had loads of friends and family with birthdays recently (yes, I'm surrounded in Scorpios) and so, have been head down making cards. Some, I've used from my emergency stash because there hasn't been enough hours in the day to make everyone a card from scratch.  I've probably blogged them already, so won't bore you with a repeat.  I have made a few however, which I've enjoyed doing.  I don't know about you, but the Christmas silly season hasn't even started yet and I'm already finding that I've got less time, than ever before. Is it the same for you?

I'm not sure will be the recipient of this card yet but it is suitable for either a male or female.  I've cased it from a demonstrator I found while blog hopping one day - Crafty Clare in the UK.  I loved the colours she'd used although some of them have retired, so I substituted them for current colours, which I reckon work pretty well together. 

Stamp Set: Nature Nest, Sincere Salutations, Season of Joy, En Francais

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Whisper White

Ink: Pacific Point, Island Indigo, Marina Mist

Accessories: Linen Thread, Corner Punch, Button from Designer Brights pack.

It's hump day today which means only two days till the weekend - yay!!  

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.

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).