OH, CHRISTMAS TREE.....

Well Lollipop Tree, to be exact!!  I thought I would share with you over the next few days, some of the goodies I will have on display and for sale at the various Craft Fairs I will be attending over the next week.  Starting with this Lollipop Tree!!

I thought it was quite a novel way to sell these wee dressed up Lollipops, and will certainly appeal to kids!  There are over 40 Lollipops on this tree, so you can imagine they took some time to make!!  I just have to finish the star that goes on top now!

Here's a close up of the shimmery, glittery bow around the bottom of the tree.  I hope this is a hit.  Let me know what you think - your opinion and comments mean a lot to me!  Thanks for looking :-)

JAI #45 SKETCH CHALLANGE

Are you up for a sketch challange this week?  Then pop on over to Just Add Ink and submit your entry using this sketch:

My entry this week is something quite different for me.  I usually use a lot of colour and this week I decided to go for tone on tone, and Earth tones at that!  Lots of browns, golds and a "Dasher" of Vanilla!  Being that time of the year, I am still in Christmas card making mode too, so you are stuck with another one, lol

I have had Dasher in my stamp collection for a while, and just haven't had much time to play with him.  In fact, a friend of mine used him before I did!  How sad is that?!  Maybe I have too many stamps - NAH!

I have chosen Soft Suede as my feature colour and combined it with gold embossing.  Both the greeting and Dashers antlers have been embossed, although that is really tricky to photograph to good effect.  I have destressed the egdges of the outer most layer of card stock and sponged slightly to darken.  The background was stamped with En Francais.  On the inside, I have lined with Very Vanilla and stamped just the antlers across the bottom of the insert.

I hope I have inspired you to submit an entry yourself!  If this doesn't rock your boat then you really must go and see what the rest of the amazing Design Team have come up with this week.  Gorgeous work as usual Girls!

CHRISTMAS BANNER

I recently join a site raising money for a little girl that needs a lot of help - We Stamp for Lara.  This site was offrring some wonderful tutorials for a small fee, which is being used to get Lara the specialised equiptment she desperately needs.  One of the tutorials I was lucky enough to get is a Christmas Banner - with a difference!  Made on a ribbon, these medallions look so great and you could totally coordinate your Christmas colours if you were going with a theme.

I have stuck to traditional and simple, but love the overall effect!  I have it hanging at my front door (becuase there is nowhere else to put it for now) and the comments I have received about it have been truly wonderful.  Once you have the medallions made it comes together so quickly.  I think this would also make a lovely gift to give a friend to dress up their doors!

THE STAR OF THE SHOW

I just had to show you this gorgeous Box!!  I bought the template from Lauren Meader at My Time Made Easy, and just had to share with you something a little different!  Isn't it cute!  You could use this box for any occassion!  I was just playing around with spare scrap card, but couldn't wait to do a colour one to show this wee baby off!

Lauren and her team have the most amazing projects you can buy, and at very cheap (I think!) prices too.  What a novel way to give your gifts.  I have another template I purchased from her that I am dying to have a go at, but it is just going to have to wait!  I have two Craft Markets coming up to prepare for instead!

If you would like to see another colourful example, then pop over and visit Jodene Tripp, she has a gorgeous and colourful Christmas version of the same box.  Leave her some comment love while you are there!

HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGY?

How about something a little different from me?  A Scrapbook page!!  Yes, I know - I don't normally do them and I certainly don't class myself as a scrapbooker.  I recently did a workshop for a lady that would like to learn, so I figured we could learn together!  It was a challenge, I must say!  But I am pleased with this little 6"x6" layout.

I don't own a Dog, but love some of the images you can find, so CASED one off the net.  I have a wonderful friend in Delys Cram, whose scrapbook pages are so beautiful!  She has taught me the technique of rolling the edges of your card stock, which I used here on the Crumb Cake piece.  She also taught me not to fill the entire page, that having space is a good thing!  When demoing a scrapbook page, she also recommends putting a photo in, so guests can see how the finished peice might look once they add their own photo.  I don't know how to use DSP to great effect, so I used both textured and smooth card stock on this peice instead.  I have popped the photo on with dimensionals, so there is a space behind the image to add a journaling tag, if you want one.  We used the Soft Holly wheel to roll the backgrounds, and the new Mistletoe Ribbon, which is FREE when you place an order for the Christmas Bundles, see the top of my post for the special.  You can order these until the end of the month, so place an order with me before it is too late!

BE INSPIRED

I surf the net just about every day for ideas and inspiration, especially when my creativity has up and left me.  Thankfully, I still have it at the moment, but that wasn't the case not so long ago.  I see so many wonderful artists out there, that I can't help but have a go at one or two projects that they may have done themselves.  This card was insired by Danielle Daws, and while not a direct CASE of her work, I love the simpicity and layouts she favours.  You can see some of her gorgeous work HERE.

It may look a simple card, but uses not only stamps, but ribbon and Designer Paper too, which I just don't use enough of!  It is good for me to get back to basics when I feel a little frazzled.  I am really pleased with how this simple card turned out.  Thanks for the inspiration, as always, Danielle!!

JUST ADD CHRISTMAS

Looking for ideas for your Christmas cards and gift wrapping ideas?  Well look no further.  This weeks Just Add Ink challenge is to add Christmas!  The girls have come up with some beautiful designs to help you get sorted, so be sure to go have a look at the Design Team entries and those of the participants!

I know we don't get snow here in New Zealand for Christmas, although the weather is so crazy at the moment, you just never say never!  I see snow scenes and think of Christmas anyway, so ran with that in mind when I made this card.  It was also a great excuse to pull out my Brayer again!

I have masked the bottom of the card to create the snowy hill and the moon, then brayered over the whole card front in Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy to create the sky.  With the addition of a couple of stamps, making scenes like this is quick and easy.  I have also added Dazzling Diamonds along the ridge of the hill to create sparkle on the snow.  I decided to let the artwork speak for itself and not add a sentiment for a change.  I don't think it needs one for you to work out what kind of card this is, do you?!!

LIGHT THE WAY

You can buy some beautful Tea Light Holders, even from the $2 Shop, but they aren't always exactly what you are looking for.  These are so easy to make, that I thought I would have a go myself.  Even though we don't get snow in New Zealand at Christmas, I think of snow and Christmas together, so kept with that theme when I whipped this Luminara up.

I have used some of my retired stash on this holder, although I have included an Antique Brad from the new range.  The iciles I made myself!!  Don't they look great?!  I also hunted high and low for a battery operated tea light so I wouldn't set the place on fire!!

I got this wonderful tutorial from We stamp for Lara.  Sign up for the month, and receive a new tutorial every day!  This is to raise money for wee Lara Dunn who requires specialist care and equipment.

JUST BELIEVE SYMPATHY

After losing my creativity for a while there, I finally found it again when I turned out this card.  I was just playing around again with my brayer and had reieved my latest order with the "Just Believe" stamp set in it.  Nothing like a new set to get the creative juices flowing again, right?  I pulled out my brayer for this card again.  I am starting to feel more confident with it now.  I brayered the night sky in varying hues of blue and sponged the bottom of the card in varying greens.  I then stamped the silhouette image right over the top.  I love the new satin ribbons in the catalogue because they coordinate so well with the ink and card stock colours.  They are also beautiful to work with and make bow tying really easy!

Can you see the star in the sky?  Looks a little loney, I know.  But when we lose someone we love, thats exactly how we feel and thats what I wanted to represent.  I heat embossed the sentiment in white and finished with a trim on the black mat using the new Scallop Trim Border Punch.

Stamps:  Just Believe, Occassional Ouotes
Card:  Basic Black, Marina Mist, Whisper White
Inks:  Basic Black, Always Atrichoke, Old Olive, Marina Mist, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy
Accessories: Satin Ribbon, Embossing Tools, Scallop Trim Border Punch, adhesives, sponges, brayer

ADD ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

I recently submitted a design for the Just Add Ink challenge - Add Birthday!  I was really happy with my design, but I always seem to make cards for women and forget the guys!!  So I decided to sit down and ink up a set I have had for ages and hardly used - Just Cricket.  Not normally a set I would get excited about, even though I love the game itself and could watch it for hours.  It has been sitting on my shelf getting dusty, cause I just didn't know what to do with it.  So, I came up with this little guy............

I have cut each image and popped them on dimensionals to give it a real 3d feel.  The "grass" is a bit of a cheat really.  I have taken a stamp from "Just Believe" and using my markers, just inked up the bottom 3rd of the stamp, omitting the flowers that were on there.  I have scored a "frame" on the Whisper White card stock, although it is hard to see in this picture and also distressed the edges before layering on a Not Quite Navy card base.

GIFTS FOR MY GIRLS

Extravaganza was a huge success, thanks to the ladies that attended and to the fabulous team I have in the Paper Diva's.  I wanted to show my appreciation to Debi and Rhonda for all the many weeks and hard work that an event like this takes.  I love to make pamper packs at the moment, thanks to Debbie Airey and her wondeful ideas for craft shows!  After a long day teaching others the joys of papercrafting, I figure my girls earnt the right to be pampered too!

I made each of these Tote bags in Richrazzleberry and they are secure closed with gold brads.  I recently earnt the Alpha Dies for the Big Shot, and I used these to do their names on each Tote, just to make it really personal for each of them.  Inside each one is:  A pack of Cleansing Wipes, Shampoo, Conditioner, Hand Lotion and Bath Foam.

I also negelcted to mention in my last post, a HUGE congratulations to Sandra who won our gift basket on the day!  Sandra is in the front row, on the right, of the group photo, with her basket of goodies at her feet!  I hope you have had a chance to have a play with all your new product Sandra!

PAPER DIVA'S 2010 CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA

OH MY GOODNESS!!  That's all I have to say about the best day!  After a couple of months of planning, Extravaganza is over *sigh*.  But what a great day we all had!  Thank you to all our lovely crafty ladies who made the day so much fun for Rhonda, Debi and I!!  My whole team turned up to help in one capacity or another.  Debi, Rhonda and I taught the projects, Annie prepared the most delicious lunch, and Julie and Sharlene attended as guests.  Let me introduce them to you:

Left to Right:  Julie, Sharlene, Paula, Rhonda (back), Debi (front) and Annie

We had fifteen ladies join us for a day of learning projects and techniques, giveaways, a yummy lunch, and best of all, making new crafting friends.  My idea of a great day!

Here are some photo's of the day I would like to share with you all:

As each guest arrived, she was greeted at the door by Debi and given her Kit bag for the day.  We had a little surpise for each of them on arrival too - A water bottle and sustenance (Chocolate, of course!) all dressed up in a SU Apron and personalised with each guests name!

We had four projects to teach during the day.  The Paper Diva's took turns to teach each group.

Debi teaching her beautiful Scrap Book page.

Great to see everyone with such big smiles!

Rhonda in a slightly more serious frame of mind.  They must have been up to a tricky part in the project!

Debi presented a great display during lunch.  She showed some of the fantastic ideas you can use the ornament punch for.  I know quite a few of the ladies were so taken with her demonstration, they added this versatlie punch to their orders and wishlists!

Finally, a group picture!  Our wonderful ladies with a selection of their favourite projects of the day!

Again, Thank you all for making this such a wonderful experience for such a new team of Demonstrators and we look forward to presenting another Extravaganza in 2011.