Merry Christmas!

To all my friends in Blog-land, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I have a confession to make - I didn't send ANY Christmas Cards out this year.  Not a single one.  I'm hoping to make up for it next year!

Here is the traditional Santa Photo to share with you:

AND

I have exciting news - 

On Boxing Day, we are all going on a

to

 How exciting!  We are going on the trip of a lifetime to the USA as a family, for six weeks!

So you see why I haven't been able to do much crafting for Christmas - too busy packing, planning the trip, doing 50,000 loads of washing,  anxiously watching the AUD exchange rate, re-packing, and keeping four excited kids amused since they finished school 3 weeks ago.

I will be back when the kids go back to school, with the usual scheduled programming.  I will try to do a few blog posts while I'm away - mainly to show off my kids and I having fun!

Have a wonderful Christmas, and see you next year!

Two weeks till Christmas

Does that strike fear in your heart? Or are you smug and satisfied with the knowledge that you have done everything already? I am no where near ready, and for the first time in many years I might not actually get around to mailing cards out this year!!!

Shocking, I know.

I have been busy making teacher gifts as you know, and here is what the Kindy teachers got this year: an elegant box made from acetate die cut with the Fancy Favor Die and embossed with the Big Shot (seriously, what would I do without it?) with about half a dozen hand made gift tags inside. The tags were made from the leftover tags that were cut out when I made my Advent calendar - thrifty, no?

Advent, Summer Mini, December Frenzy....Phew!

Hello!  What a crazy, busy, fun time of year!  Tomorrow is the last day of school for two of my kids (one finished school last Friday, and one has one day next week to go), and I've been up to my elbows in teacher presents, end of year patents, and the like.  I'm sure it has been the same for you.

Today our new Summer Mini and the December Frenzy launched - WOW!

Here are the details of the December Frenzy:

Or you can see more HERE.

The Summer Mini is gorgeous - hard to pick a favourite new product!  Plenty of lovely new stuff for Christmas, including glimmer paper (I've used it below).

Here is the Summer Mini, You can read it online HERE.

One of my favourite Christmas traditions is an Advent calendar.  in the past we've had Lego calendars, and those chocolate ones you buy at Target (the chocolate always starts to melt in our Summer heat before Christmas Day), and this year I was inspired to make one myself.

Here it is, and the instructions:

Two Tags Advent Calendar

Paper
•Whisper White card stock
• Real Red card stock:
•Lucky Limeade Cardstock
*1/2 sheet Red Glimmer Paper (121790,  $8.95 for two 12"x 12" sheets, Summer Mini Catalogue)
Stampin’ Up! Accessories
• Big Shot
•Two Tags Bigz Die (115954, $39.95)
• Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Medium Sizzlets Die (115951, $139.95)
• Scallop Circle Punch (119854, $33.95)
3.5cm circle punch (119860, $30.95)
Extra Large Oval Punch (119859, $33.95)
• 2-Way Glue pen
• Stampin’ Dimensionals
•White Bakers Twine (124262 $4.95) Summer Mini Catalogue
Cherry Cobbler 3.2cm Striped Grosgrain (I used Real Red, but it has retired)
Sticky Strip
SNAIL adhesive
2  small elastic hair bands

My Notes

1. Using the Big Shot, die cut 48 of the wide tags from the Two Tags die (I was able to cut three sheets of cardstock at a time, which helped speed up the process). 
2. Assemble by merely adhering two tags together to form a triangle shaped box. 
3.  Decorate each triangle box as desired - I alternated real red and lucky limeade cardstock with mine.  For the numbers, die cut red glimmer paper with the numbers medium sizzlets (you may wish to roll through the Big Shot twice to ensure a clean cut). 
4. Using a long piece of striped grosgrain ribbon (hemp twine would also work) attach a small hair elastic to both ends using a small strip of Sticky Strip.  This will make it easy to hang your Advent Calendar. 
5. Using Baker's twine, attach each box to the striped grosgrain as shown.
6.  Don't forget to put some treats in each box!  I put four small sweets in a small plastic bag, tied with red ribbon, as I have four children - you could put anything you like!

Tag time

I have a few gift tags to show you over the next few days. You know how I love products that coordinate? Well, swoon, Two Tags die (for the Big Shot) is another one! See how the thin tag is made to work with the scallop circle punch? Love it! The stamps I've used here are old favorites: Punch Pals, and Perfect Punches. In the second photo you see the other tag this die makes - totally cute and the work of moments.

Child's Play!

Look at the gorgeous card my sweet daughter (Thing 1 as she is affectionately known) made for her friend! I am totally going to copy it and pretend I made it! She stamped the recycled brown wrapping paper too - that's my girl!

Sigh.  I really did think I'd be able to cram 2-3 classes into this month, maybe a workshop too?  And my Christmas cards would of course all be ready to send by now.  Teacher Presents would be wrapped and ready to go.

Of course what really happened - the Year 6 Musical (Opening Night is tomorrow night!); the end of year music concert at two different schools, I got a chest infection, half the kids had a virus, a fencing competition, Stampin Up Regional Training,  the Year 3 Planetarium Excursion, and a little thing called Reality, or "What Were You Thinking?"

I'll be back when I can.

Big Shot Promotion to Die For!

                  Big Shot Promotion

Dates: 1-30 November 2011


Promotion Details: During November, you can get 10 percent off select Big Shot dies-no other purchase necessary!

Page	Item	Description	Retail Price	10% Off Price
156	117332	Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits Die	$21.95	$19.75
156	114515	Flower Burst Embosslits Die	$21.95	$19.75
157	114517	Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
157	116824	Petals-a-Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
157	119277	Elegant Lines Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$14.95	$13.45
158	113440	Buttons #5 Sizzlits Die	$9.95	$8.95
159	113466	Pillow Box Bigz Die	$36.95	$33.25
159	114507	Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die	$39.95	$35.95
159	120903	Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die	$39.95	$35.95
160	115953	Mover & Shapers Punch Windows	$54.95	$49.45
160	120893	Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die	$69.95	$62.95
160	121810	Petal Cone Bigz L Die	$59.95	$53.95

Don't have a Big Shot? Get 10 percent off the exclusive Big Shot Bundle! The Big Shot Bundle (item 128944) includes the following:

Page	Description	Retail Value	10% Off Price	Item
155	Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine	$186.85	$168.16	128944
156	Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits Die
157	Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

More Christmas fun!

I am sure I didn't show you these cards already...
But if I did, I'm sorry! I will come back and edit - I am writing this on my iPad, waiting at the doctor's surgery.

This card uses the Ovals die, Big Shot (seen this month's promotion yet? Whoops, haven't put it on the blog yet!), the Pennant Parade stamp set and matching punch) and Four the Holidays stamp set.

this is one I CASE'D from the current Idea Book and Catalogue. Love that glass glitter!

And finally, one made with an alphabet on my wish list - I borrowed this stamp set from the lovely Manda.
What else to tell you? Since my last post we've had my eldest son's 9th birthday party with a Halloween theme:

My seven year old did her first school assignment (with help from Mummy's Big Shot) on penguins:

The kids and I tried out some of the settings on my SLR camera:

And my Mum, Aunt, Sister and I made 6 aprons, 6 Lederhosen, and 12 Chinese Dancer costumes for my eleven year old's school musical. Well, they did the sewing; my involvement was multiple trips to Spotlight to buy more fabric, cutting out, and making sandwiches and cups of tea.

Christmas Stamp a Stack

This is what you missed yesterday, unless you came to my class: we made ten of these cards, based on a Becky Roberts design. Pretty aren't they? They feature the "Letters to Santa " DSP and Merry & Type stamp set.
I am planning another Christmas Card Stamp a Stack and a 3d class - make an Advent Calendar, so stay tuned for those details!

Tis the Season

Here's a card I made which would be quite easy to mass produce - I used Tis the Season, Jet Black Stayzon, water colour crayons, a blender pen, cherry cobbler spotted ribbon, and the big shot scallop circle and clear circle dies. The sentiment was heat embossed with new Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. Lots of sponging around the edges with the tea stain ink from the distressing kit.
I love this DSP (First Edition SpecialityDSP) too, so versatile!
Funny to think the Big Shot has only been in our catalogue for a year, but it is utterly indispensable to me now!
A quick reminder about my class tomorrow and Stamp night on Friday night too. Hope you are having a lovely week!

Fun things to do with Kids

I was looking through some photos on my computer just now and came across some taken on the recent school holidays I'd forgotten about. (please note I am doing this post on my iPad on the Blogger App this time, I am not sure how the photos will appear, so bear with me until I can edit the post please!)

Have you taken your preschooler to the Queensland Art Gallery lately?

We love the Art Gallery, GOMA, the State Library, and the Museum. But the Art Gallery is especially fun at this time of year when the jacarandas bloom. There is a gorgeous painting of a jacaranda in the Gallery and every year something magical happens....

Some kind gallery fairy drops jacaranda flowers under the painting! Kids love it.

Another thing they enjoy is saying hello to the Gallery Mice ( you can buy a book about them in the Gallery gift shop).

If you haven't taken them there, you should!

Getting a jump on Christmas

I have been trying to blog these photos for days now - I edited them on my iPad and then the Bloggsy app didn't want to load them - I think I need to reinstall it or some such palaver. Then the software upgrade on my iPad took hours.....yadda yadda.

Here are some recent cards I made, using the same colour combination. The Bingo card was cased from the IB&C. So fun! The other card features a new alphabet stamp I borrowed from lovely Manda....it is on my wish list now!

Birthday Owls

Hello!  It has been wonderful with the kids back to school this week...except then I fell into a heap with a bad cold, asthma, etc, which hasn't been so fun.  It has also meant that I haven't yet sorted out details of my classes etc this month - but fear not, I'll get onto that ASAP!

In the meantime, my eldest has been invited to her BFF's sleepover birthday party tonight, and I had to whip something up (literally moments ago).  BFF is heavily in love with all things owl related at present, so I dragged out that faithful owl punch and went to work:

Stamps:  Perfectly Penned
Ink:  Early Espresso
Paper:  Pool Party, Real Red, Brights DSP Stack, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Shimmery White
Other:  Big Shot, Ovals die, Owl Punch, Bird Punch, 2-way glue, Dimensionals

Here's the card I made, and as I had the present in a large kraft paper bag, I added a co-ordinating tag made in seconds with the Big Shot using the Two Tags die:

Paper: Pool Party, Early Espresso, Shimmery White, Brights DSP Stack
Other:  Big Shot, Ovals Die, Two Tags Die, Owl Punch, 2 Way glue, Dimensionals

Too easy!  And best of all, I used scraps that were on my desk already!

Gotta dash, doing the Kindy & school run.  

I Dig You!

It is my twelfth wedding anniversary today, and I made a card for my beloved (which I will steal back from him to put on my sample board, LOL) with a very masculine tone.

My hubby works in the oil &gas industry, so this industrial "Big Boys Toys" stamp set is perfect for him.

This is the other stamp set I played with when I was at Amanda's last week. It is one that is on my wish list as I not only have two little boys, I think it will be useful for Big Boys too!

Here are the other cards I made:

As you can see, I used the same colour combinations for all the cards, which is an efficient way to make a batch of cards for future use, as well as make maximum use of the cardstock with the least amount of wastage.

A Productive Playdate

The other day my kids and I had a lovely playdate with my Stampin' Sister Amanda, who is an incredibly talented Demonstrator and lovely person. There were seven kids altogether, and they all got along beautifully, setting up tents in the backyard, and making up games. While they were occupied, Amanda and I stamped - I used a couple of her stamp sets that I haven't yet purchased, but are on my wish list: "Dinoroar" and "I Dig You".

Want to see what I did? Here are the Dinoroar cards:

Special Birthday

My little sister  (LOL, I have 3 little sisters), had a milestone birthday this week, and I made her a glam but simple card, because she has an understated, elegant style.  Wish I was more like her!

Stamps:  Delicate Doilies, Perfect Punches
Paper:  Shimmery White, Brushed Gold, Confetti White
Ink:  Encore Gold (retired)
Other:  Big Shot, Lots of Labels sizzlet, adhesive pearls, Whisper White Satin, Wide Oval Punch

Pretty, no?  It is a bit sad that the gold ink is no longer with us, I could have used gold embossing powder - and I intended to, but ran out of time as I made this almost on my way out the door (as usual).

My gorgeous sister, the Birthday Girl, our Mum, and me

Hope the school holidays are treating you well (it is school holidays here in Queensland).  We have been busy with sleepovers, craft activities, swimming, etc.  Fun times!