Gift Card Holders

I'm back again after my Christmas break! We had a wonderful Christmas at my daughter Hayley's home, we stayed for a few more days after Christmas too. The weather was a bit cold for the beach, but it was a lovely break for us both. I think my grand-daughter received enough new toys to stock a new store, but it was just priceless seeing her reactions to everything. I hope you all had an amazing Christmas too! We've been home for a few days now, but I've been busy shopping at the post Christmas sales, I usually stock up on Christmas papers, ribbons etc. for next year while they're on, I even bought a couple of gifts for next Christmas too......just hope I don't forget by the time next Christmas comes around.

Here's a few gift card holders that were quick and easy to make. I did find a tutorial on them, but ended up altering them to better suit me anyway. The papers are from Kaisercraft's 'Be Jolly' 6x6 card pad, the greetings are rub-on's by Imaginesce. No stamping on these babies! I totally forgot to take a photo of the card insides!

Edited to add: The link to the tutorial I found these on is HERE at Dawn's Stamping Studio. I did alter the dimensions slightly and used cord/twine for closing 2 of my gift card holders - I adhered the die-cuts to the top flap in those ones.

We're heading into the city tomorrow night to spend New Year's Eve in a hotel so we can go out and see the fireworks up close. We don't usually do anything much for New Year's Eve so this will be something different! Hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

Christmas Trees

Hi everyone, I'm madly trying to get my Christmas preparations done before we head down to Torquay tomorrow (Christmas Eve) for Christmas at my daughter, Hayley's home. I spent yesterday baking some Christmas cookies, I still have to decorate one batch of them and find time to wrap presents! I think I will be having a late night tonight!

Today's card uses Sketch #95 from Card Patterns. I used the tree stamp from Annabelle Stamps Whoo Loves Christmas stamp set and coloured it with Copic Markers. I also added a little Stickles glitter to the baubles and used some Distress Ink around the edges. The DP is by Basic Grey from an older range, cardstock is Stampin' Up and Bazzil (lighter green). I also used some Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps, a Fiskars border punch, the greeting is a Making Memories rub-on and the organza ribbon is recycled from a gift.



Since I won't be back here until after Christmas, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my blog readers a very merry Christmas with your families, I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Treat Bags

Hi everyone, I'm back today with a quick beyond the page project. Whilst I'm having a bit of a holiday from chemo treatment at the moment, I still have to have my porta-cath flushed every 6 weeks, so I had to have that done on Monday. I made these treat bags for the Day Oncology staff as a thank you for their care over the last year.

I used a tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers by Diana Gibbs for her Box in a Bag. This is such an easy project, I made four of them in an afternoon.


I used patterned papers by Kaisercraft (swirly pattern) and Basic Grey (green), I used glittery stickers on one side of the bag and stamped some tags for the other side using stamps from Justrite Stampers Just Cookin' set. I've also used Fiskars border punch,Stampin' Up Round Tab punch, as well as circle and scallop circle Nestabilities and assorted ribbons. There is a close-up of one of the bags in the photo below.




I did also make a couple of larger boxes using the same papers and cardstock and filled them with goodies, but forgot to take a photo of them!

It's a glorious day here today, so I hope you are having a lovely day wherever you are today!

Naughty or Nice?

Hi, I'm back again with my second post for today! I recently purchased some fun digital images from Bugaboo Stamps, there are some hilarious images and quotes over there. This card uses the fun character, JJ. I've coloured her with Copic Markers, the patterned paper is by Kaisercraft. I'm entering this for Bugaboo Stamps challenge blog, Catch the Bug - the theme this week is Anything Goes.



OK, that's it for today! I think I'm getting near the end of my Christmas card list now, just have to hurry up and get them sent out. Hope you have a great day and thanks for visiting here today!

Card Patterns Sketch #93

Hi there, I'm back again with another Chrissy card! This one uses Sketch #93 from Card Patterns. I used the same Inkadinkado stamp that I used for THIS CARD, but this time I stamped it onto some Stampin' Up Kraft cardstock and coloured it with Prismacolor Markers.

I'll be back again soon with another card to post, I've been so busy making cards lately I haven't had time to post them all yet.

Teddy Christmas

Hello, I'm back again with another Christmas card! I've made this one for my little grand-daughter, her favourite toy is her white bunny, or Munny as she calls him, so this image was perfect for her.

The stamp is from Stamp-It (Australia) and I've coloured it with Copic Markers and a white gel pen. The design paper is from Kaisercraft and the greeting is a die-cut sticker by Francheville.

I made this for two challenges - the sketch is from AnnaBelle Stamps and I've used the theme from Teddy Stampers of Christmas Teddies.

Thanks for stopping by today, it's going to be a real stinking hot day here. Hope you have a great weekend wherever you are!

Snowflake card

Hi everyone, back with a quick post of another Christmas card. For this card I used the Simply Saturday sketch from Andrea's Stampin' Moments blog.



Stamps used are Fiskars snowflake border and Pink Paislee greeting. I like the softness of the Versamagic Sea Breeze ink that I used. The large snowflake is a cuttlebug cut and emboss die, the small snowflake is punched with a Carl punch, silver cardstock is embossed with Swiss Dots folder. I inked the large snowflake, then glittered it with Diamond Dust.

OK, that's it for now! Hope you like my card.

Oh Christmas Tree!

I've decided I really need to hurry up and get my Christmas cards done, so I'll be hanging out in my craft room for the next few days. There are so many challenges that I want to do this week, so I've combined three challenges to make this card. I've used the sketch #51 from Papertake Weekly blog, the theme from Daring Cardmakers - Spots and Stripes, and The Pink Elephant blog theme of using the colours RED, BLUE and GREEN.

I used the tree stamp from the 'Hooo Loves Christmas' stamp set from AnnaBelle Stamps. I stamped it onto some grungy green Kaisercraft designer paper, coloured the baubles with a red PrismaColor marker and put some Dimensional Magic over them to give more dimension. The spotty and stripy papers are from the Kaisercraft Christmas Carnival 6 x 6 paper pad, the greeting is a rub-on by Imaginesce and I've added some white grosgrain ribbon, some aqua satin ribbon and some skinny red satin ribbon finished with a bow. The blue and red cardstock are from Pedigree Papers.

Thanks for looking, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with another card!

Ten Two Studios Holiday Printables Countdown

Lisa Vollrath of Ten Two Studios is again hosting her annual Holiday Printables Countdown from December 1st to December 25th. The first two days are up already, you can download them HERE. Don't forget to leave a link on your blog if you download the images.

Christmas is coming................fast!

I think it might be nearly time to hit the panic button! It's almost December and I still have lots of cards to make......eek! Inkurable Stampers November theme is to make a Shabby Chic Christmas project, so here's mine.


I started by inking up a Hero Arts distressed background stamp, firstly with light pink Hero Arts Shadow Ink, then swiping a darker shade of pink around the edges. I spritzed the stamp with a little water, then stamped it onto white cardstock. Once it was dry I stamped the Inkadinkado holly stamp onto it using Versafine Vintage Sepia ink, then stamped the Firecracker Designs greeting in the bottom left corner. I trimmed around the shadow background and then distressed the edges and layered it onto some green Bazzil cardstock with distressed edges. The pink background piece is Cor'dinations cardstock which I've dry embossed with Cuttlebug Victorian embossing folder and sanded the raised parts. I also distressed the edges of both background cardstocks. Other supplies are Kaisercraft rhinestones, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip Taffeta ribbon, white lace from my stash and a couple of staples.

Every year I say I will start my cards early so I won't have to rush at the last minute. I did actually start early, but didn't continue with them (sigh!). How are you all going with your Christmas cards?

It's all good!

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all your well wishes about my CT scan......they worked! I got the results yesterday and there is nothing showing on this one, my Oncologist thinks that it must just have been a kink in my bowel that showed up on the last scan. He's also giving me 2 months off chemo...........YES!!! So, I'll be having Christmas and New Year off it, then another scan to work out where we go from there.

Sorry, but I don't have anything new to show, but I do have some photos of my grand-daughter, Annika that my brother took while he was staying with me. I've also bought myself a new toy that's keeping me busy. I got a Sony Touch Ereader, so I've been busily downloading some free books to read on it. I love that I can store a heap of books on it and it's only about the size of a thin paperback novel.....and very lightweight! The best part is I can just pop it into my handbag and carry it around with me......great to have when you seem to be waiting forever for a doctor's appointment.......and if I happen to forget my glasses, I can just make the font size bigger!

I've got a bug on my arm, and it tickles!!

Whew! This is hard work!

Hey, what you looking at, can't you see I'm busy!




Aaah! This drinks good!

Hope you enjoyed the photos, I'll try and get back into my craft room soon and get into making some Christmas cards so I can get them finished on time! Thanks for stopping by!

Big Present!

Hi everyone, my card today uses one of the fun, and terribly cute, Forever Friends stamps that I purchased a while ago. I still have a few more of these that are patiently waiting to be used, LOL! Since I'm using a teddy image I'm entering this card for the Teddy Stampers blog challenge of creating a birthday card. It's my first time playing along there and they are celebrating there 1st birthday with lots of prizes to be won!

I coloured my image with copic markers and added the tiny Stampin' Up 'For You' greeting to the tag.......it only just fit which made me happy! I used my Nestabilities Label 17 dies to cut out my image and used a larger die to cut out the Stampin' Up Lavender Lace cardstock. My background features Designer Paper from Kaisercraft's Lilac Avenue 6 x 6 pad and I've used my trusty sewing machine to stitch around the edges. I stamped another SU birthday greeting on the top left of the card and layered this onto a piece of Lavender Lace cardstock. I also used a piece of Lavender grosgrain ribbon (unsure of the brand) and some SU certainly celery ribbon tied with a button and embroidery floss, then just all adhered to a white folded card.

Hope you like my card today, please let me know what you think! My brother is arriving today for a visit so I might be a bit scarce for the next week. I also have a follow up CT scan scheduled for next Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for me! If the result is good, the oncologists are talking about giving me a break from chemo, yeehaa......that will be MY big present!

Lots of Pink!

Hi everyone, here's a card I've done for this month's Annabelle Stamps bling sketch challenge.

The birthday cake stamp is from the Annabelle Stamps 'Helen's Party' stamp set, I've coloured it with Copic Markers, the greeting is by Hero Arts. The pretty satin floral ribbon and the bling is also from Annabelle Stamps, the Patterned Paper is by Heidi Grace. Other items used are pink Criss Cross Bazzil cardstock, Fiskars border punch and Nestabilities Lacey Circles dies.

I was rather tempted to add more to this card, but in the end decided to keep it fairly clean and simple. Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Christmas Angels.

Hi everyone, I thought it was time I added to my Christmas card stash, so here's a card I've made for this month's Inkurable Stampers October Challenge. This month's challenge is based on a Becky Fleck Pagemaps sketch and you had to use at least 3 stamps on your project.


I started with some Stampin' Up Kraft cardstock, folded to make a 5" x 7" card. I inked around the edges with Stampin' Up white craft ink and stamped some Hero Arts snowflakes over it in a random pattern, then stamped the Pink Paislee greeting in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. Next, I stamped a Hero Arts S5101 Raindrop Background stamp over a piece of pink paper, then punched the longest edge with a Fiskars snowflake embossing punch, I then adhered to a piece of SU Sage Shadow cardstock - I softened the edges of both pieces by sponging with SU white craft ink, then wrapped some silver and organza christmas ribbon around this, tied a silver thread around the bow and added a pink Heidi Grace heart pin.

For my main image I thought I'd try the Faux Silk technique, you will find how to do this on Splitcoaster Stampers site HERE. I used Versafine Vintage Sepia ink to stamp the Crafty Individuals stamp onto white tissue paper, then added my own twist to the technique by spraying with Bronze Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. It's hard to see in the photos, but it really does give a lovely shimmer. I adhered my finished Faux Silk piece to some Stampin' Up Close To Cocoa cardstock. I've included a close-up photo below, just click on it to see a larger pic. I finished my card off by adding a row of pink Kaisercraft rhinestones below the greeting.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you are having a lovely weekend!

Black and White card.

Hi everyone, apologies again for being MIA! I'm just not getting a lot of craft time lately, we are getting some nice weather now so have been spending a bit more time outdoors enjoying the sunshine.

My card today is for Annabelle Stamps blog challenge 'Say It In..... Black and White'. I realised after I'd made the card that it also loosely fits the monthly challenge sketch, also on Annabelle Stamps blog, so it's a 'twofer' entry.


My main image is a Stamping Bella stamp called Anabel Lulu and the sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set - added some Kaisercraft black rhinestones either side of the sentiment. I also used a Quickutz 'Diamonds and Dots' embossing folder and added some pearls for a touch of elegance along with the black organza ribbon. The large heart brad is from Craft Affair and I just twisted the ribbon between the brad prongs. The Lacey Circles is a new die from Nestabilities and I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the black cardstock.

Here's a close-up of the birthday cake, I put some Frosted Lace Stickles on it for some sparkly icing.

Hope you like my card today, I'd love to hear what you think of it!

ps. To the idiot/s who keep trying to post spam comments to my blog.......give it up, I have comment moderation so your comments will never be posted here! Stop wasting your time and mine!

OSA Sketch Challenge Layout #91

I have a quick post today for this week's OSA Sketch Challenge Layout #91. I used a Penny Black brush flower stamp as my main image, the background I stamped it on is a technique from one of the Technique Junkie Newsletters, sorry I don't remember what it's called as I made it some time ago. The greeting stamp is an EK Success one. I used an Asian Cuttlebug embossing folder and also embossed the black cardstock strip with a polka dot border folder and added some green grosgrain ribbon over it. Also used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, the green cardstock is Bazzil, the embossed cardstock is Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel, the black is Pedigree Paper.

Thanks so much for looking, I have to run now, I'm off to the local Sunday Market. Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend, it's back to Wintry weather again here, brrr!

Poppy card.

I haven't made an Oriental card for such a long time, so I thought I'd use a recent purchase of the Hero Arts Poppy Background stamp to make one. The stamp is quite large so I made my card size 5" x 7" and used a very simple card design. I've entered the card for this weeks' Annabelle Stamps Blog challenge - "Say it with.......No DP".

Other items used Pedigree Paper cardstock, red polka dot organza ribbon, gold Painty Pen and a good luck Asian coin.

Hope you like my Oriental card for a change, thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate!

Hi everyone, I haven't quite disappeared off the face of the earth, but it has been quite a while since my last post! It's been quite a stressful few weeks for me, the results from my latest CT scan showed up "something" which my oncologist was convinced was a new cancer. He sent me for a PET scan just to make sure and after a nervous wait, the results showed that it wasn't cancer at all!! You can't begin to know the relief I felt hearing that news! They're still not sure what it is that showed on the CT scan, so the scan will be repeated in around 5 weeks time. Comparisons with this PET scan and the one I had done last year also showed a reduction in the size of the nodal cancer that showed in the first scan.......which means the chemo is doing it's job, thank goodness!

Needless to say my creative mojo had gone out the window so it's taken me this long to finally come up with a new card. I've used the sketch from Annabelle Stamps Blog and the theme from The Pink Elephant Blog - Childhood.

I just had to use this digital image, a freebie from Mo's Digital Pencil, as it shows exactly how I felt when I got the report from my PET scan! The image is coloured with Copic Markers, the background is done lightly with chalk as I don't have an airbrush system for Copics. The greeting is from a Fiskars clear stamp set. Also used Kaisercraft rhinestones, Bazzil cardstock, Nestabilities and Heidi Grace patterned paper.

Hopefully I can catch up on my blog comments over the next few days. I haven't been on the computer much lately as finally we've had some Spring weather and I've been doing a little Spring Cleaning, which didn't get done last year as I was recovering from surgery, and some tidying up in the garden. Hopefully we will be growing more of our own vegies this year as I'm trying to eat more organic foods now and prices are about double if you buy organic from the supermarkets!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Simply Silhouetted!

Hi everyone, this card is for Andrea's Stampin' Moments Simply Saturday challenge - Simply Silhouetted. I really love silhouette stamps, you don't really have to do a lot to them, just stamp it on a nice background, add a little bling and there you go!

My stamp is by Hero Arts, the greeting is from Stamp-It. I just stamped the flowers onto some patterned paper.......I have no idea who the maker is as I only have a few scraps left, wish I had some more really! I added a colour lift with some red gingham ribbon. Not sure if this is a true CAS card as it has a few layers, but it was pretty easy to make. Hope you like it!

Just on a personal note, it is an anniversary of sorts today for me. Not one that you'd want though, it's one year today since I was diagnosed with cancer. It hasn't been a great year, but, the good thing is that I'm still here to talk about it.........and I'm not planning to go anytime soon either!

Happy Father's Day!

It's a bit late as Father's Day was yesterday, but here's the card I made for my Dad! I would've posted this yesterday, but because of some wild weather here our power went out for most of the day......thank goodness it came back on before it got dark. I managed to get some much needed work done in my garden instead, at least it wasn't raining most of the day! Maybe we'll get some Spring weather soon......pleeease!

I've entered this card in the Copic Oz blog challenge #2. - I'ts All About Men! My image is by Penny Black and I've coloured it with Copic Markers, of course! The greeting is also by Penny Black, the cardstock is Stampin' Up Kraft and retired Cranberry Crisp. The Kaisercraft Patterned Paper are just some scraps from other projects that were sitting on my desk, I didn't even trim them, just added some ink to the edges. Also used some Nestabilities Circles and Labels dies and some stick-on letters for the 'Dad' word.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope you are having a great day!

Another one!

Here's another card I made using the same Christina Re flocked damask paper as yesterday's card, hope you like it! This is a last minute card for Andrea's Simply Saturday challenge - Simply Square.


The stamps are by Kaisercraft - flourish, which I embossed with black EP, and the sentiment is by FireCracker Designs. Speaking of FireCracker Designs, my lovely blogging friend Vicki very generously donated the above stamp and ALL her FireCracker Design stamps to me - I'm talking a very BIG box of stamps!! Vicki is now a Stampin' Up demo and no longer has a need for these ones. Thanks so much Vicki, you are so kind!