Merry Christmas to all….

Well, it has finally sunk in that it is Christmas tomorrow! eeek! Tonight for us is prawns and bubbly while watching the Carols  – meanwhile wrapping the pressies and cooking the turkey (we eat it cold tomorrow night!) – and of course making the last minute pressies and gift tags, some years finishing 20 or so bonbons but not this year.  This year will be Aidan’s first that he will understand the Carols (he liked the Carols in the Domain last week) and I’m sure he will get excited by Hi5! Tomorow is presents and brekky here then to my parents for lunch with my dad’s family then back home for tea with the in-laws. On Saturday we’ll go and catch up with my other Nanna and Grandpa (mum’s parents). We’ll also spend a few other days catching up with other friends and family over the Christmas and New Year break – and enjoy some family time just the 3 of us … and the dogs!  

To share some Christmas spirit, the INKlings held a Secret Santa between us! We got emailed a name and had to send a pressie to that person – SU! stuff of course! It was so lovely to receive such a special gift and card and I wasn’t patient enough to wait for Christmas day to open it!!

After a bit of thinking I guessed that my Secret Santa was Joanna! And I was right! Thankyou again Jo! She tried to throw me off by getting Jayne to address the parcel and it had Jayne’s address as the sender! Speaking of which …. I haven’t been discovered as the SS for my giftee! Must have got her fooled!!!

So my Christmas wish this year is to enjoy the day and enjoy my son’s smile as he wakes up. To enjoy catching up with both family and friends and to make more happy memories to last throughout the years. I hope your day is special and full of happiness – Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cooking!

hi all! I am sorry that I have been neglecting you and it’s not that I have not been doing Christmas stuff – it’s just that what I have been doing is not paper/stamp related! LOL! Here is a pic of what I have been busy doing this week amongst writing on the Chrissie cards and all the other family and work-related stuff!

Do you think I have enough christmas goodies to share around? LOL! There is gingerbread, cranberry and pistachio biscotti, white christmas, white choc and cranberry shortbread, stained glass bread, panforte  – oh and the truffles in the fridge! *insert ‘full as a goog’ smiley here* I love cooking adn especially at Christmas when I can share it with friends and family – and not have to eat it all myself

Anway, hope your chrissie preparations are going well and I promise to post some stamp related projects soon! Kari

2 baubles and a dare completed!

Drum roll! Presenting my 2 baubles -

Thankyou Carol, for inspiring (=daring) me to make another bauble or two! I had already made the top one with the scalloped circles – just fold 6-8 circles in half and stick the adjoining sides together – and then Carol made this one. Well, I just HAD to give it a go and so that is the lower one and here is a close up…

It is made from 9 circles (I decided to use the scallop circles) and they are stapled in the middle then you alternate the ends of the ‘petals’ that you stick together as you work your way around the bauble. Very pretty and effective, and not all that time-consuming either!

That’s all for tonight – I have to get some sleep and prepare for Carol’s next dare oops ‘challenge’!! LOL! K

INKlings Cyberchallenge

Tonight’s Cyberchallenge was hosted by Margaret and I managed to complete all 3 challenges! Wow! My pics are not great because of the poor lighting in here at night, but here is card number one….

I have used the Live Your Dreams stamp set here – that is a new one from the new Summer Mini Catalogue. I used my markers (still available singly for the next 4 days!) to colour the flower before stamping, so much easier than trying to ink it up with the pads and still get different colours! This card was for a sketch challenge and Margaret got us to use a Sketch from the Demonstrator section of the Stampin’ Up! website for inspiration.

Now, don’t worry, I will have more Christmas projects to show you, I am just having a little break for a couple of days from the Christmas stuff and tomorrow I will be right back into it!

Night!

A visit to Santa!

Today’s Christmas project is a little different – still something I ‘made’ *giggle* but a bigger part of me and my hubby than any card, scrapbook layout or OTP project I could ever come up with!

Today we went to see Santa at our local Myer store, and the gorgeous boy sat on Santa’s knee and chatted away. Santa was especially lovely this year too so it always makes it easy for all involved

We then headed into the Magic Cave at DJ’s in Adelaide. Now I know some of you might wonder why we didn’t do the Santa visit and photo in there, but the queue was so long and I heard one of the staff tell a parent that the wait was 1-1 1/2 hours long to see Santa, that I think we made the right choice! However, our boy did have a ride on Nimble (the white horse from the Christmas Pageant) and the merry-go-round so that was fun enough for him.

We then had a bite to eat and headed to Myer in town too, where when Aidan was offered a ride on the Santaland Express train he took his ticket from the lady and went running in to climb into his seat on the train – no need for Dad to help him on or anything! So cute! Each time he went past us he told us he was going ‘Round and round!’

All this after the excitement of seeing the Wiggles  and putting up the Christmas tree yesterday too! So lovely to see him so animated with it all though and it really makes you wonder how you enjoyed this time of the year before he came along! *sniff sniff* I hope you are all enjoying this special time of the year with your family and friends! K

Childproof Christmas decorations?!

Hmm, until a couple of years ago I did used to go a little berserk with the decorating, but now we have a lounge room full of kids toys there isn’t much space available! Also, there are little hands just waiting to ‘undecorate’ the tree as soon as the decorations go on it! LOL! Anyway, I did think that paper decorations would be a great way to go, well until I started seeing all these lovely ones that ‘Mummy would be very upset if Aidan squashes them!’ So in background of this first photo you can see where we have resorted to hanging baubles this year…..

Hmm, gotta love those Scotch hooks that you can pull off when you no longer need them!

Now in the foreground of the picture is the Gorgeous German Ornament by Carol – well the instructions are by Carol, I made this one – dare completed!!  ;) I used the Rose Red Designer Series DSP and some White taffeta ribbon. They are quite easy to make, Carol has a fabulous tutorial here to try out and the pictures make it very easy to see what to do. And here is another picture close up from the side ……

Have a good Sunday! K

You choose!

ETA: sorry I must have just ’saved’ this post instead of ‘publishing’ it earlier! Oops!

Today I have 2 cards for you to see – very similar and I’d like to hear your thoughts on them! Which one do you like and why? Leave me a comment and them by the end of Sunday (ACSDST) I’ll pick one person to send each card too!

I kind of feel like I should be singing “Which of things things is not like the other….” *giggle! Too much Sesame street!!!

Those of you who have attended a Stam-a-Stack with me over the last few months will recognise the top card! Hi girls!

Inspiration for these cards came from the last mini catalogue. It was done in Holiday Harmony colours and DSP with a Star accent originally, but I chose the Dashing DSP and colours plus a stamp from the Party Punch Hostess Set punched out with the Designer Label punch. On the top card I also added a punched out circle in Real Red behind the circle part of the label – just to give it a bit more definition.

Enjoy! K

Why do 2 year olds believe the weird things we tell them?!

Okay, so you are probably thinking ‘What?!’ But it is true! My son doesn’t listen if I ask him to eat or tell him his Dad is at work when he keeps asking for him, you know, the normal stuff that they keep asking as if they don’t listen/believe what you are telling them. But when he hears the Christmas lights tapping on the front window and I jokingly say ‘Oh it’s probably Santa’s reindeer come to see if you are being good’ THAT is something he believes!!! LOL! He then kept insisting Santa was at the door and i had to keep opening the door to check – finally I told him Santa was hiding! *roll eyes* and then I got to the point where I pointed out the lights and said they were what was making the noise. Nope, even tonight he was telling me Santa was at the door again!! LOL! Oh well, at least it keeps him amused!

Today I have a card for you and I am sorry but I can’t remember who I got the original inspiration from. Big apologies! It was an Australian demonstrator on a forum I am on and I will have to look back through all my emails to find the right one and post the link – in the meantime, thanks for the idea!

Anyway, what I have done to create the ‘bauble’ image is punch a circle from some scrap paper and hold the piece with the hole over some Very Vanilla cardstock whilst sponging some Purely Pomegranate ink into the circle. I also inked up a swirl stamp from the Priceless Stamp set and stamped that over the bauble shape. Once I was done with that I removed the mask and added a little bow at the top made of Mellow Moss Taffeta ribbon. The other colours used here are Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Kraft cardstock.

Hope you like it! K

Did anyone see the smiley face?

Yes I know it was a couple of nights ago, but did anyone see it? It was so amazing to the the moon in a crescent shape and then two bright stars (Jupiter and Venus? I think?!) forming the eyes to make a really bright smiley face in the sky. Here is a photo – not great, but it gives you the general idea. I didn’t even know this one in 2000 year event was happening until my brother in Tasmania rang me and said he could see it over the top of Mt Wellington so I went out to have a look.

And now here are 3 of my own stars! These are not as bright and sparkly but still look great on the Chrissy Tree! The top one is actually made using a SU! template, however if you just cut out a star shape and then score from the centre of the star to each point (inner and outer) all you then have to do is crease along the score line so that all the lines to the outer points fold one way and the inner points fold the other way and that creates the dimension to the star. You could even stick 2 back to back if you like.

The other 2 stars are soo cute! Simple and easy and these ones were each made from 6 squares (2″x2″) of DSP, I used the Wintergreen DSP. And instead of me trying to explain how to fold the squares, head on over here to Carol’s blog and try her fab instructions! Thankyou Carol!!!

Have a great day!!

Trees for Day 3

These are 2 really cute little trees! Great for gifts or decorations!

The one on the right, you may have seen something similar done on various blogs with punched circles (scallop and 5-petal) making a flower, but I thought a Christmas tree would be perfect for this time of year! And in case you are wondering what is inside… it’s a mini-chupa chup (from a bulk pack at the supermarket) I made the pot from a strip of DSP and used a couple of brads to hold it in place either side of the Chupa Chup and then used my dimensionals to adhere the cut out Season of Joy Christmas Tree images.

The cute little Christmas Tree Treat Box on the left has a templated which I printed onto the DSP with my printer (I just trimmed the 12″x12″ DSP to be 8″ wide so it would fit my printer) and then I punched 3 large stars from the Brushed Gold cardstock, adhering the side ‘arms’ of the stars together ot allow it to slip over the top of the tree. And just to add a little extra I punched out some circles from the Brushed Gold too and adhered them to be baubles! The template and instructions were from Brenda Quintana and I found it on Splitcoast Stampers. I have it here too, so let me know if you would like me to email it to you.

I’m getting ready to start my Christmas baking this week – then I’ll have yummy stuff to fill all these lovely treat boxes! Okay, enjoy your 3rd day of December – and I’d love to hear from you what you are doing in preparation for Christmas! K