Sweet 16 + Hand Stamped Cards CTMH

Wow! What a busy weekend for our family.  My daughter's Sweet 16 birthday party was a huge success.  She celebrated with a great group of friends and they all seemed to have a fun evening together.  She didn't want the night to end, so I take that as a sign of success!

Usually I always make the birthday cakes for my children, but this year I was really struggling with time so I asked a friend if she would consider making one for my daughter.  She agreed and made the most amazing cake!!  She had never made a topsy-turvy cake before, which was the birthday girl's request, but she was up for the challenge and the end result was a stunning cake which received a lot of praise on the night.

 

Our back garden was lit up like a fairy light wonderland, it made for the perfect party backdrop.  We loved seeing our daughter so happy and enjoying her celebrations with her friends. 

 

Well I promised to share some of my latest creations with you, which are all stamping related, so here they are:

A Christmas Card made using the Hostess Washi Tape Stamp Set available from Close To My Heart (CTMH).  I love this stamp set - it is so versatile and you can use it to make so many different things.

This card and the next one are similar, just done using different ink colours and sayings. The background is done using the CTMH Honeycomb stamps.

This next one is made using two of my favourite CTMH products - the Chantilly Paper Pack and the Pinwheel stamp set which was the September Stamp of the Month set.  I love the colours in this card!

And this one is my other favourite stamp sets Paisley Perfect.  In fact, it is probably my most used stamp set of all.

A lot of these cards and others that I have been working on samples of some of the card making workshops and also you can see they are all packaged in plastic - the reason for that I will save to share in another post.  Another first time venture for me which makes me feel both excited and a little scared at the same time.

Hope you are enjoying a great week so far!

So much Crafty Goodness!

If you are a reader of my blog, you will have noticed the underlying fact of my life is that I am too busy.  I love all that I do, but I am guilty of cramming too much into each 24 hour period and leaving myself feeling constantly on the brink of exhaustion.  What do I do for relaxation, other than craft?  I read Amish novels and I love them, I love escaping into the tranquillity of their world.  The two extremes of lifestyle could not be any more different. 

 

The reason you haven't heard much from me, is simply a lack of time to get to my computer and update my blog.  I have been busy crafting whenever possible - mostly making cards.  It's been too warm to crochet lately, summer has come early it seems.  I haven't been in the mood for quilting.  Maybe once my craft room is finally sorted out and I have someplace to leave my machine set up  it might look more tempting to sew.

 

Here is a card I made for my oldest daughter's birthday.  It's quite a large card and I was so happy with how it turned out.  This weekend we are having a Sweet 16 Party for her.  She is very excited and looking forward to it!  

 

I enjoyed going along to the Stitches and Craft Fair last week with my oldest daughter.  It is the biggest craft fair we have here each year and always has an amazing display of quilts on show, plus lots of classes to do and a large variety of stalls for shopping for just about any craft imagineable.

One of my purchases was this giant sized paper punch - these flowers measure 2  1/2" or 6  1/2cm, so they are huge!  It was one of those bargain prices I just couldn't resist.  I could imagine so many craft possibilities with our scrapbooking, card making and also my playgroup crafts.  The best part is this punch is really easy to use too, not like some other punches I have which really hurt your fingers/hands to use.

 

Recently I found out that one of my favourite stores, A Shabby Streak is closing down.  So very sad, especially when it is one of those specialty stores where you can find all types of gifts, home décor, pretty laces, little girl treasures, etc.  It is just a beautiful store and will be missed by so many.  So I did go pay them a quick visit when I was in the area yesterday and came away with some lovely china mugs and a pretty cake plate and these gorgeous pieces of lace and flat pearls for making something with.

 

I have some beautiful hair scrunchies and a hair clip which also have come from A Shabby Streak.

Today a nice big parcel was delivered for me!  I always get excited when parcels arrive, especially if it is craft items and I get to look inside at all the wonderful treasures - even if they aren't all for me!  Here are some of my new Close To My Heart supplies which I can't wait to try out!  I think I will need to wait until after the party on the weekend though, too much to get done between now and then.

 

Here is the exclusive Stamp of the Month set for October.  I've seen some beautiful card ideas made from using these stamps.  If you like it be sure and order before the end of the month so you don't miss out.  Stamp of the Month sets are never repeated again.

 

 I will be back to share more of my latest creations soon!

  

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies & CTMH Craft

It is school holidays here and so that means lots of children around, all of whom seem to be constantly hungry!  Here is one of our favourite cookie recipes which we find is loved by anyone who tries them.  They may not look overly attractive, but don't be deceived - once you try one of these cookies, it is hard to resist taking another!

Here is the Recipe in case you may want to give them a try.  Yes, it is a lot of butter, which is why you don't make them often!!

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Chocky Rocks
250g Butter
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
½ tsp Vanilla
2 cups Self Raising Flour
100g Chocolate Bits
½ cup Sultanas (optional)
2 cups Cornflakes

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla, beating well between each addition.  Fold in flour, choc bits, sultanas and cornflakes and mix thoroughly.  Place teaspoonfuls of mixture onto greased/lined baking tray and bake in oven for 12-15 minutes at 180*C (160*C for fan forced).

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We have been spending days with lots of play dates for the children with their friends.  We have also done quite a lot of papercraft activities when it has just been our family having a quiet morning or afternoon at home.  Certainly never a dull moment here!

 

I've had so much fun making up cards using my new Close To My Heart products.  One of my favourite stamp sets has been the Washi Stamps set - this is a special hostess reward set only.  If you want to know more, just contact me.

 

I hosted a CTMH gathering last week and enjoyed an evening of card making with a lovely group of ladies.  These are the cards we worked on.

This simple design was to give the ladies practice with general stamping techniques, especially for those new to stamping. 

 

This card was a lot of fun to make.  The Pinwheels stamps are from the September Stamp of the Month Promotion.  I've fallen in love with these pinwheels and used them for a number of different card and scrapbook projects, even a simple table centrepiece.  I can picture using them for birthday parties too - so much fun to stamp and put together.  It's fun experimenting with colour combinations too, colour makes them all look a little different.

 

Hope you are enjoying a little bit of craft time in your part of the world!

 

 

Handmade Cards - Close To My Heart CTMH

Last night I hosted my first home gathering and enjoyed an evening of card making with a great group of ladies.  It was so much fun!

 

I am loving the opportunity to create projects from all these wonderful new products.  Here are the cards we made last night.

Both this card and the next one were made using the Chantilly Paper Pack.  The colours and designs in the pack are just gorgeous with so many creative possibilities.

The stamp sets used here are Beautiful Friendship - this was used for the wording in both cards as well as the pale yellow stamped background on the second card, which is a little hard to see in the picture.  The other set used for the flowers was my favourite Hooray Bouquet.  The flowers were cut out and mounting tape has been used to add dimension to the card.

 

The ladies really enjoyed making both cards and loved the designs and the new products they were able to try out.

Today I have made up one more quick card and I'm pleased with how it turned out!

This card would be great for a beginner.  The main stamped part of the card was made using the Honeycomb stamp set. The inks are bright, sunny colours - they make you feel happy!

 

I hope you are having a great day!!

 

Birthdays, Kids Crafts and Cards!

Do you ever have weeks where you feel like you have just lived a month within the space of one week?  Well we have just had one of those.

The week always starts with Playgroup preparations - here are our latest Playgroup crafts for those of you who like craft ideas for little people.

I found tubs of cute stickers which we used to make these.  Foam sticker tubs are great value.  I made up 50 separate crafts and used just over one tub, so I have plenty of leftovers to put away for another year. 

We had had a birthday  and a birthday cake!  Very simply decorated with marshmallow flowers dipped in pink sugar.  The inside of the cake was a little impressive though, chocolate cake filled with coloured cake balls - it gave a nice rainbow effect.  Of course, silly me, I forgot to take a photo of the cake once it was cut.

 

We usually do home birthday parties, but this year the Birthday Girl wanted to go bowling with some of her little friends.  They had such a fun time and I discovered that we have one very serious little bowler in the family!

 

And the special occasion included the Birthday Girl getting her ears pierced!

It has been exam week at school, getting end of term assignments finished and handed in and just lots of extra running around in general.  But amidst all the craziness that has been our week, one of my girls and I have had a chance to have some fun together and try out some of our new Close To My Heart stamps and make some cards. 

These stars are fantastic!  I still need to work on my techniques for applying the Liquid Glass to give a glossy, 3D effect.  I've used it on other cards with no problems, but this time I applied it right after inking - so I have learned that you need to let the ink dry first so that it doesn't bleed.  I am loving the colours in this card though!!!

This card was made by one of my younger girls.  She did a great job!  It was done using the stamps from a set called Hooray Bouquet.  This has been one of my favourite stamp sets so far and I have used it myself for so many card projects.

This one is made from a set of stamps called Beautiful Friendship.  My daughter has done it in her favourite colour.  Her stamping techniques are getting better the more she does.

I have a few more cards I am working on at the moment, but will wait and share those with you another time. 

Hope your week is a productive one with a little crafting included somewhere!

Close To My Heart - Shop Online in Australia Now

I am super excited about the very recent launch of Close To My Heart in Australia.  Following the company's earlier introduction to the Australian market last year and the very positive response that received, CTMH has now officially launched their company in both Australia and New Zealand.  The great news for all of us is that it now means everyone has the opportunity to purchase and use the wonderful CTMH products!!

If you have never had the opportunity to take a look at any CTMH products, I invite you to click on the link here.  You then need to click on Products and from there choose the 2013 Products Launch Guide.  Then sit back and enjoy browsing!

CTMH provides quality products for all of my stamping and scrapbooking needs - both hobbies which I personally enjoy.  One thing I really appreciate about CTMH is it's affordability.  This is something which particularly matters when you have a large family.  I love to be able to enjoy my crafts but need to work within a specific budget to justify (mostly to myself) the expense.  It has been great to see how quickly my stamps and ink supplies have grown through CTMH products, simply because of affordability . . . not to mention the fact that I love the designs and colour palette.

My first introduction to CTMH was back in the late 1990's and they were one of the first companies which had co-ordinating papers, cardstock and ink pads.  I still have some of my original inks and they are still working fine.  They also had one of the most amazing collections of stamps available.  So you can see, my enthusiasm for CTMH coming to Australia is definitely well founded.

Here is an example of a scrapbook page and a few other crafty ideas made using the great pinwheels stamps which are available in the exclusive Stamp of the Month set for September.  This one is definitely joining my collection, look at the variety of sizes which you can place together to form a dimensional pinwheel.   I love the pinwheels and can think of so many possibilities for using them!!

 

Stamp of the month sets are only available for purchase for one calendar month and then they are no longer available after that. If you like this one, be sure you don't miss out.

 

I know that there are lots more products available to those of you who live in the USA and I am looking forward to the product catalogue expanding for Australia next year.  In the meantime, if you wish to shop online yourself, you can do this from here.  There are fantastic benefits if you are a serious scrapper or card maker, you may wish to look into becoming a CTMH consultant yourself.  Especially in the early stages of this being new to Australia, a great time to join.  Just ask me how!!

I'm off to play with some new stamps and create a few new card designs too ~ fun, fun, fun!!!

  

Handmade Cards - Stampin Up

One evening this week I had the opportunity to go along to a card making evening with some friends and it was so good!  I know that for many of you, you most likely do things like this often, but I don't tend to get out much, especially evenings, to do things on my own without the kids, so I totally enjoyed it!!

The cards were all simple to make and done using stamping techniques.  They were all made using Stampin' Up stamps.  The lady hosting the evening wasn't a Consultant for Stampin Up, but she very obviously favoured their products and had an enormous supply of everything to choose from.  It was fun using a different variety of stamps and ink colours to what I have at home.

Christmas Reindeer

This Christmas card has an embossed background, which was done using a Sizzix Big Shot Machine.  The brown card was lightly sanded after it was embossed, which brings out a two tone background - rather nice!

Coffee & Friends Card

Although I prefer Tea to Coffee, I still really loved this card.  It could be used for anything.  It doesn't look very complicated, and it isn't, but there are 3 different shades of brown ink to do all the stamping which gives nice colour variation.  All the splatter across the bottom comes from 3 separate stamps.  The band around the coffee cup is raised up to give the card some dimension.  All up a fun card to make.

Hexagon Card

This card, believe it or not, was actually the most challenging.  I used a new tool which I had never seen before and what it did was allowed me to line up my stamps exactly where I wanted them to go.  I tried stamping the hexagons freehand, which is never usually a problem for me, but could not achieve this same perfect look.  So I gave the tool a try and this was the end result, perfectly spaced little hexagons.  Each individual hexagon has been separately stamped.  I loved the colour palette of the ink pads in this one.  It was a great card to make and I like coming away feeling I have learned a new skill.

40th Birthday Card

This last card was something I made by myself at home for a friend's 40th Birthday.  I made a large card, double the size of what I would usually do, so that a number of friends could all write in the same card. The idea for the card design came from adapting another card I had found on Pinterest.  The green paper flower I made using an online tutorial and once finished, stuck a button on the top.  I loved how the entire card turned out.

 

I find card making to be so relaxing and almost therapeutic, I really should do it more often!!