Holiday news

Hi there, I thought I would surprise you and do 2 posts today. Wow what has got into me... unfortunately for you though its not card making related but for my family it is holiday news.

With only a set amount of time for going online Graham has told me to type up my blog post before going online, which of course is good advice. Yesterday the girls went to the beach and then went out with Graham on the boat but as I can’t go out in the sun and it was 40 degC I chose to go shopping. We are staying at South Yunderup so Mandurah is the closest beach and shops so I wandered around the shops in the cool. I bought myself some earrings and enjoyed just pottering. I took my book so I could sit and read as well.

Later in the evening we took the boat on the Murray River where we are staying and just cruised up the river looking at all the lovely houses on the banks. It was so peaceful. Emily and her friend Jackie have been feeding the ducks and also the huge Koi fish that are in the lake outside our apartment. As we booked very late to have this holiday the only place that had vacancies was a very expensive place but we are enjoying the chance to have a really nice place. I hope you are also having a nice week wherever you may be. Emily patting the fish after feeding it.

and below the girls feeding the ducks.

Graham and I enjoying sitting on the balcony.
Below, the unit we are staying in.

The girls helping launch the boat.

Christmas Baking

Hi there,

Here I am again. It’s amazing how much extra time I have on my hands now that it is holidays. I thought I would show you the baking I did on Boxing day morning for our Family Christmas party. I don't make sweets very often so I had fun making a ginger bread tree and some cone cake Christmas trees and also a lemon Meringue pie. I'm told the recipe I used this time is better than my old one so that was good to know. Not being able to taste test is a little hard so have to get others to do that for me. Anyway just a little bit of different creating from me today. have a great day
Andrea

Advent Calendar Box

Hi there,
I hope you have all had a safe and happy time over Christmas. I had a lovely time and now am on holidays with my family for 4 days. Its going to be 40 deg C here today so I plan to stay inside most of the day. The girls want to go to beach. I think I will stay at the shops in the cool while they are there with graham. Anyway we have some access to the Internet at the place we are staying so i thought I would post some photos of the little advent calendar box I made for my Secret Sister on the ESAD group I am on. I had so much fun making and then filling the little drawers. I put all SU accessories in the drawers so she could enjoy her Christmas present for 24 days.



well I'm must get off here now as we have only bought an hour of Internet use and the girls are hanging out for their turn.
have a great week
Andrea

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

I hope you are having a wonderful day with your families.
When we were young we lived on a farm and to me Christmas meant cherries from my grandma's tree. I love cherries and always buy them even when they are really expensive, as I have to have some, even just a handful. Last night we had friends over for a BBQ and this is a photo of Skye checking out my bowl of cherries. I think her look tells it all.

Christmas Ornament

Wow I'm really enjoying the holidays as I am finding time to do extra things like visit my blog and show you some things more often. This time its not a card but there is some paper in it.

Every year I make my sister Marion an ornament for her wonderful Christmas tree. When I smocked it was a smocked one and then painted ones while I was doing folk art so each year it changes. This year I decided to make her one that I had learned recently with beaded dangling bits. I also made a box to put it in. Anyway the easiest way to describe it is show you some photos.

1. this is the box 2. When you lift the lid the ornament is attached but can be taken off easily

3. its the empty box
4. Close up of the ornament.

Well I hope you have a wonderful weekend doing whatever you have planned. I am having a nice quiet one as my kids are both away.
Andrea

Animal Stories

hello how was your weekend? I have had a quiet one, doing very little with this heat. I just downloaded the photos from my camera and found one of the cards I made with the new sets from the mini. Animal Stories. At first I wasn't going to buy this set but now I am thinking its OK. I am quite pleased with how this card turned out. It is a case of a Halloween card done in grey but I changed the colours. I am not sure where I found the card so I cant acknowledge the original designer. Sorry about that.


have a good week...... Andrea

More Summer Mini Cards

We had a great afternoon making cards with sets from the Summer Mini on Saturday so I thought I would show you another couple of cards I designed for the day.
The first one I used my new circle scissors to cut the circle out of the centre of the front piece and used the new set Hello again to make a little garden scene in the window. I used the new wheel Retro Remix to decorate the front piece.
This second card I used the Butterfly prints stamp set along with the wonderful new butterfly punch. The background I sponged in soft subtle colours before stamping over with En Francais background and the Baroque motifs swirl. I love the verse in the butterfly prints set. I have punched it out with the wide oval punch.

Well Id better get off the computer and go and get my Christmas cards finished so I can post them. As usual I'm running late. I do tend to leave things until the last minute which is naughty of me. I hope you are all more organised than me. have a good week
Andrea

Nature's Nest

Hi everyone,
Wow I couldn't believe it when I came on to my blog to find that I haven't updated it for so long. I haven't been very well and also went away for a week with my friends for a break but still I should have had something by now. I have made some cards with the new sets from the Summer mini that was released yesterday. I am using some of them for my catalogue launch on Saturday but I thought Id show them here now to let you see at least something of the new sets.
these cards I made while away and I have used the set Nature's nest. One with the turtle and the other with the peacock feather. I have included a close up of the feathers as I was quite happy with the way they turned out. I used reinkers to paint them with. I havent really finished the feather card as it needs a greeting but I will add that later. Both cards are using sketch challenges for the layout. I coated the turtle's shell with crystal effects to give it a shiny look.

Snow Swirled Embossed

You probably thought I wouldn't be back to my blog with me not posting for so long. I have been going through some tough times at home and haven't been keeping up with things. tonight I got a lovely comment on my blog which reminded me that I have a blog and that I haven't updated it for awhile. Thank you to those who do come and check out what I have been making. I'm currently working on an Advent calendar so cant wait to finish it and show you it.
These cards are what I taught for last months stamp club. All the girls chose their own colour card for the base and then we embossed the tree and snow flake in gold and backed in with mirror gold card. The colours we used were ,Garden Green,Not quite Navy , Cameo Coral, So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, Taken with Teal, Elegant eggplant, Tempting Turquoise, Ruby Red and Old Olive They looked great.

Demonstrator Business Web Site

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I now have the opportunity to have a business website so have decided to try it out. I need to add so much more to it as I have time but for now you can find it here. From now on as promotions are launched they will be on my website and all my classes and workshops will be on my calendar. I hope you enjoy having a look at the site. I will still be updating here at least once a week, so come back and have a look.
have a great day
Andrea

Bleaching Technique

On Saturday we had Regional Meetings for Stampin Up! here in Perth and I was asked to present a workshop Wow on the day. I chose the bleaching technique. I love the way different colours of card stock react to the bleach.

I chose to use Baja breeze and found that it bleached to a colour close to Blush Blossom, so I chose to use Blush Blossom for my card.

Also Bordering Blue changed to a colour close to Pink Pirouette. On this card I used the Tre Chic background stamp.

With my Perfect Plum and Pale Plum card I used Close as a Memory and as the image bleached out to almost white I used white to accent the card.

I also used bleach in my aqua painter and bleached out parts of rose petals in the Fifth Ave Floral set. I then layered 3 sections of the rose for a 3D effect for my last card.

Spotlight on Christmas

Today I have been making Christmas cards with a couple of ladies. I used Marelle's great layout for one of her stamp a stacks using Spotlight on Christmas. I just changed a few things around and had fun using this set that I have been wanting to sit down and play with for awhile. It was fun to try different ways of making the cards using the same basic pieces. Thanks Marelle for the ideas.

Trinny and Susannah

Wow its been nearly 2 weeks since I posted anything and would you believe today I'm not showing a card but telling you about the fun day I had. I know I don't usually chat about what I'm up to but I was so excited today to go and watch Trinny and Susannah do a show at Carousel. I even got their autographs and a photo with them. it was a great show with them making over about 6 ladies who needed to change their look. I took note of one of the outfits and later while walking past Katie's found the little cardigan that I had liked and while in the shop also found the dress that they had suggested for this one lady. I had to try it on and even though its nothing like what I would normally wear I actually bought it and the little crocheted cardigan. I don't fit the dress quite perfectly yet but with a kilo or so more and a new bra it will look great. I am keeping it for a special occasion.
here are some photos I took. I was way up the back of the crowd but with a zoom and holding the camera above my head I got some good pictures. Then later they signed autographs and I got a pic with them. the one that Trinny took of us wasn't very flattering for either of us so I'll leave that one out.
Well its getting late so I had better finish for tonight and try to get back to show you some cards in the next day or so. Im not the best blogger but at least I put something on every now and then.

World Card Making Day Fundraiser

Fresh Cuts

Cheep Talk

So Swirly Roller

Yesterday was World Card Making Day and the fundraiser that I held at Lesmurdie Baptist Church was a huge success. My 2 wonderful friends Sandra and Karen helped me organise the day and we had 29 people attend. They got to make 5 each of 2 Christmas cards and 6 other cards. I have already shown you one of the cards last week so thought I would show you the others. I designed some of them and then cased others as the wonderful Stampin Up demonstrators are happy to share their ideas with us so that days like this can be organised much quicker. I don't have the time to go back and find the cards designers that I got inspiration from so Thank you to those that share their ideas. I want to thank everyone who came and made it such a wonderful day.
My goal and dream was to raise $1000 to send out to Thailand with the mission team and what a great surprise when we totalled up at the end of the day and it was $2013.50
The funds were raised with silent auctions, raffles, and of course the fee to attend the day. Stampin' Up! the wonderful company that they are donated retired products f0r our raffles.
I hope you enjoy looking at these cards as much as everyone enjoyed making them yesterday. thank you for looking and have a great week
Andrea

Echoes of Kindness

Circle Circus in 2 colours

As Lovely as a Tree reverse masking Christmas card

World Card Making Day

I have just finished designing the last card for my fundraiser card making day I am doing on Saturday 3rd October which is World Card Making day. It is being held at Lesmurdie Baptist Church and we are fundraising for this years mission project which is building some accommodation for the refugees on the Thai/ Burma border. I thought I would give you a peek at my final card and maybe if you are in the area and have nothing to do on world card making day you are welcome to come and join us. It will be $50 for the day with a hot lunch and morning and afternoon tea included with a Christmas stamp a stack of 2 cards 5 of each and then 6 other cards. A total of 16 cards. Email me if you would like to come.
This is the card I designed. I have used Boatloads of Love and then added the lighthouse from Uncharted Territory and then some items from Just Beachy. I had fun making this stair step card.

Non Christmas Stamp Set Non Christmas Colours

I needed to come up with a card using non Christmas colours and a non Christmas stamp set for a get together I had today with friends. I got the idea of using these stamp sets from someone from a group I am on. Sorry I cant remember your name. Anyway the colours I chose are Taken with Teal and Elegant Eggplant. The stamp sets are Brocade Basics and Boho Backgrounds. We didnt end up making the card today as we were too busy making other lovely cards, but I didnt mind. I had a great day and am blessed to have such wonderful friends to share ideas with.

Emily's Card

Emily needed a card for a friend so she made this card for her. She doesn't make cards when I am around and creates her own designs. Isn't she clever. I love the way she has done the squares down the bottom. I haven't taught her how to prick the holes for the brads so she did bend her card a little while adding her brads but I think she has done a great card. One day we might even sit and make cards together.

Wild about You

I bought Wild about You a couple of months ago and hadn't got to use it, so I decided to make a baby card with it. I made the pink one while stamping with a friend and then when I taught it at my last 5 card day I gave the option of making it blue or pink. I think they look great. I hadn't used my spiral punch much either so wanted to use it as well. I used the Polka Dot background as well.