Paper Doll Design

It's back to reality, and back to work after a fabulous three week break! This made me go through some of the pics from the holiday - lots of eating and drinking I notice!! The Pride of America - our home for 7 days.                                                Lunch spot in Lahaina, Maui     Stopping for refreshments  Sunny day in Kona. At the Luau in Kauai. Sailing past the Napali coast as we leave Kauai.  Shame about the drizzle. When we returned to Waikiki the Christmas decorations were up around the hotel. Bye Bye Honolulu!!

Only now do I have some time to sit down and play with the new stamps sets that I got from Onstage - Stampin' Ups convention where, amongst other things,  they release and demonstrate new products. Being a demonstrator you get to go along, AND order before other demonstrators AND before anyone else has even seen the new goodies!! I was so lucky to walk away with several new sets, all different for different occasions. Tonight I played with the Picture Perfect Birthday set. I loved the bows and the two step stamping that gives them definition. Aren't they cute? I used Peekaboo Peach, Pink Flamingo and retired Mint Macaron.  Rather than use two different inks, I stamped off for the first stamp and then full strength colour for the second stamp. By piecing together some of the stamps, I made the party whistles on this next card.  I layered the sentiment on the Foil Frenzy Designer Series paper to give it a bit of WOW factor! See it in the new Occa...

Just returned from a holiday in Hawaii! I know, amazing destination! I hadn't been before, so when my cousin decided that was where she wanted to celebrate a milestone birthday, we quickly jumped at the chance. As my husband has his birthday around the same time, we thought we would head there before some of the others and celebrate his birthday there too! We had a week in Waikiki before boarding the Pride of America ship which sails around the Hawaiian islands for 7 days - not bad hey!! Our view!! Some of the family and friends joined us early and came out to dinner with us.  Special dessert for the birthday boy!!  The giant cocktail he got that we had to pass around the table to make any attempt at finishing it!! Cheers!

 I have been playing with new products that arrived from the New Occasions catalogue. Playing with these has my imagination going crazy! They are so beautiful with so many possibilities! I am taken with the mermaids from the Myths and Magic suite. The suite features Mermaids, Dragons, Wizards, Unicorn and Knights in shiny armour - everything mythical and magical! The suite has: Stamp set Framelit dies  Washi tape Glimmer paper (sparkly white, light green and turquoise) Designer Series paper - which is so beautiful it's a feature all by itself! Using this gorgeous paper, I cut out two mermaids to use as the focal point of on my card. I love how they carry the banner which is floating on the card.   Behind the cutout is a circle of glittery DSP. (The sentiment is from a new hostess set called "Yay You") The mermaids have their own glittery detail making them sparkle! This b...

I wanted to do something special for my brothers wedding.  Something that was a present and card all in one.  He had asked for contributions toward his Hawaii honeymoon so I needed to have a little pocket to put some money in. I had done one of these box cards once before for a friends "special" birthday and she was tickled pink to receive it and still talks about it a year later. Going by the invitation, the colours of the wedding were grey and Tiffany blue/turquoise.  These are so lovely together, I knew it would look lovely regardless. Here's how it turned out! All closed up - looks like a little present! Then when the lid comes off, the sides fall away to reveal the inside. The wedding cake is the centre piece. Made from scratch! One side had a pocket so I could slip some honeymoon money in and the other had a card so I could write my message to them. If you haven't made one of these, they really are not too difficul...

To attend my brothers wedding, that we have been counting down to, meant a trip to NZ to catch up with family. We got to stay with family and have several get togethers before the big day.  The wedding was a great day / night even if the weather didn't behave itself!  Don't seem to stop the smiles either! It was the first time I had been back with my family since the loss of my beautiful mother so it was nice to be back together again with something happy to bring us together.  We did still shed a few tears, knowing that she would have enjoyed every minute, seeing her baby get married and begin his life with his new wife. The speeches were funny, the company lovely and the food and music was fabulous! We really had a great time and stayed til the very end!  A sign of a great wedding!! Here's some pics of the day.

So what do you think of these colours together? This was the new colour challenge over at Colour Inkspiration. Elegant Eggplant, Bermuda Bay, Pool Party and Lemon Lime Twist. Had to get my thinking cap on for this one, but once I started, I loved the combo and made several cards - just entering one, which made it into the TOP 5!! I was so pleased! Here's what I made with this combination and the Top 5 entry is the last one: Using a retired stamp set called Betsy's Blossoms for the flowers (I love it because it reminds me of fireworks exploding!) and the new Lovely Words thinlets, for the word FRIEND and the Lovely Inside and Out stamp set with the additional words. I love blending and these colours went so well together.  It looks a little unfinished - that's because I stole the words "for a great" from the card and used it on the one above!! I just got this set, Jar of love ,  as a gift from Stampin' Up !   I had had m...

 Two of my friends lost someone very dear to them, so it was my turn to send some sympathy cards this week.  Both friends had to fly overseas to be with their loved ones, both making it in time to say farewell. One lost their sister after an illness and the other their father, quite unexpectedly. It is at this time that you reflect. How lucky you are. How anything can happen at any time. How precious all those "moments' are. And makes you reach for the phone or send out a message to those close to tell them you love them and are thinking of them, because you just never know.  It is only a short while ago that I lost my mother, so the feeling were still fresh and my heart went out to the both. I made sure they had a heartfelt card waiting for them when they returned home so they would know I had been thinking of them. The colours  - Mint Macaron and Smokey Slate - are calming and peaceful.  Just to make it twinkle, I added some Wink of Stella...

Well I've been having fun with some new goodies that arrived. There are some beautiful sets in the new annual catalogue and that's what arrived the other day I want to play with them all at once, but that would send me into chaos, for sure! So I started with the Happy Birthday Gorgeous set. There are 32, yes, 32 stamps in this set! There are the larger sentiments, small and delicate sentiments, balloons and flowers.  This set is truly versatile. Here are just four of my creations.   I cut the centre from the card and backed it with vellum to create a softness to the window.  I stamped the rose behind it as a feature and created a bouquet around the edge of the window.  I used one of the more delicate sentiments.  The card is in Fresh fig. The Bermuda Bay flowers really make this garland pop.  I only raised some of the flowers to give it some dimension. There's a lot of fussy cutting happening in this one!! ...

It was decided at work that we would have a Bake off to help raise some money for one of the charities work supported. The office divided into teams and we had to choose someone to bake.  The theme was cupcakes and it would be a blind tasting - no one would know who made what.  They would then vote for the winner. The winning cupcakes were to be voted on for presentation and taste. The two of us in our team, nominated by our workmates, decided to secretly co-ordinate our presentation.    Inspired by Pinterest (love Pinterest!!) my colleague made little tents on top of her cupcakes while I made campfires! They looked so cute!  Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate sultans for the rocks, mini flake for the logs and swirls of icing for the flames! Hidden inside was a cream cheese, chocolate and orange centre, that you only discovered once you bite into it! My colleague had a caramel centre in her chocolate cupcakes as well as hidden chocolate under...

With a large die sentiment, birthday cards couldn't be any easier! This die makes it so easy to put together a quick card that looks amazing. Co-ordinate with some Designer Series paper (DSP), cut two sentiments, one in black for a shadow effect, and put it all together.  Add a few enamel dots to finish it off! Using black as the background makes the sentiment pop - especially the Lemon Lime Green. Some fussy cut flowers from the Whole Lot of Lovely DSP range, change this card from masculine to feminine. More fussy cutting!   I cut out the motif from the Fresh Florals DSP in Berry Burst with the sentiment in Powder Pink.   I love this die!  So quick and easy to make a celebration card that I'm sure the recipient will love! If you want to get this die and have a go yourself, then just click into my store! Happy crafting!