A Different Gift Bag

Hello Readers.

Well, school holiday's have finished and I'm home again from a quick trip away with the kids (hubby's been away somewhere else for work). So, I finally have a chance to post this little gift bag I made using up some scrap cardstock and DSP I had.

This project took virtually no time at all to make up, and contains a cello bag full of goodies within. Another bonus is it's stable enough to stand of it's own accord...even with the fans on as fast as they will go. They'd be great for functions or weddings and could be done with any colour scheme.

Supplies:

* Baroque Motifs & Great Friend Stamp Sets.

* Mellow Moss Textured 12x12, Mellow Moss Cardstock, Very Vanilla Cardstock & Le Jardin DSP (retired).

* Scoring blade, Cello Bag, Scallop Circle Punch, Mini Glue Dots & Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon.

Bauble Christmas Tag

I've been having so much fun lately now that I'm back stamping and doing workshops again. A big THANK YOU to all my hostesses, firstly for getting me back into the swing of things and secondly for reviving my love of stamping.

A recent hostess asked if we could make Christmas Tags...it is after all creeping up on that time of year again. Well, after some research and final inspiration from Laurie, I came up with this creation. Once again, there quick and easy to make...which I'm sure the ladies can attest too. I hope you like today's creation.

Supplies:

* Baroque Motifs Stamp Set.

* Kiwi Kiss & Riding Hood Red Cardstock.

* Encore Gold Stamp Pad.

* Round Tab Punch, Piercing tool, Gold Embossing Powder, Gold Brads, Crop-a-dile & Riding Hood Red Stripped Grosgrain Ribbon, Heat Tool & Sticky Strip.

* CM Circle Cutting System (Non SU product).

Happy Tree's

Today I decided to alter a little hard covered index book I had. I really wanted to use up some scrap pieces of cardstock, and some retired DSP which I've had for a few years now. I also knew I wanted to make the 'grass' around the tree as 3D as I possibly could. To enhance this effect, I've then also faux embossed the main image. I hope you like today's creation which I've made for a friend.

Supplies:

* Trendy Trees & Warm Words Stamp Sets.

* Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss and Brocade Blue Stamp Pads.

* Whisper White, Bashful Blue & Mellow Moss Cardstock. Pool Party DSP (retired).

* Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain Ribbon.

Something Yummy Made with Honey

This afternoon I decided to bake. It's been a while since I turned the oven on as we've been away on holiday, then on our return I discovered our dishwasher was broken. So naturally I've been trying to keep the hand washing to a minimum, which meant that 'cooking for leisure' was out...LOL!

Keeping in mind I still have no dishwasher I wanted to make something tasty, quick and something that used the least amount of dishes. So, I pulled out my old favourites cookbook and settled on Honey Joy's. At least that's what my Mother always called them. As a surprise for the kids and Jason tomorrow in their lunch boxes, I also decorated their packaging. I hope you like today's off the page idea.

Recipe:

4 Cups of Cornflakes

90 grams of butter

1 Tbsp of Honey

1/3 cup Caster Sugar.

Method:

Place butter, honey and sugar in a saucepan. Over low heat stir til the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Pour liquid over the cornflakes and mix well making sure all cornflakes are covered in honey mixture. Place in a 150 degree Celsius oven for approx 10 minutes or until golden and brown. Cool on wire rack.

Supplies:

* Yummy SAB Stamp Set.

* Pale Plum and Whisper White Cardstock.

* Basic Black Stamp Pad. Pale Plum Marker.

* Prima Flowers & Kindy Glitz.

Easter Bag

I'm so glad I've only got just over a week til I'm on holidays. I think the break from stamping and blogging is going to do me the world of good as I'm starting to lack enthusiasm with regards to stamping. That's not to say that I don't enjoy it, just that lately I seem to be doing nothing for myself.

The reason I'm telling you this is because once again I have a very quick and easy off the page creation to show you today. I obtained the template from the SU demonstrator website, printed it onto some DSP, cut out as directed and adhered together. Simple! I've used rub ons for the circle tag. This bag would be so cute filled with Easter eggs and given as an Easter gift.

Supplies:
* Spring Fling DSP.
* Certainly Celery Cardstock.
* Cherished Memories Rub Ons, White Organdy Ribbon (retired), Gold Cord (retired) & Crop-A-Dile.

Leah's Colour Challenge #6

I made time today to participate in Leah's Colour Challenge #6. I won't enter as I didn't make a card or scrapbook page, but I wanted to play along not only for a bit of fun, but to also support Leah and her wonderful blog.

Today I covered a notepad. It is similar to covering post it notes, only on a larger scale. I also coloured a pretty flower with re-inkers and have used a mellow moss button from the retiring Soft Subtles Button range.

I wasn't too sure of this cover to begin with, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. The coloured flowers are easily the focal point while the rest of the background blends nicely together without being over-powering.

Supplies:

* Garden Whimsy Stamp Set.

* Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White Cardstock.

* VersaMark Stamp Pad.

* Soft Subtles & Bold Brights Markers.

* Chocolate Chip Re-Inker, Soft Subtles Buttons (retiring)

Waiting for the Easter Eggs

Evening everyone!

I've wanted to make one of these little 'fries' containers for a while now and thought, with Easter on it's way it would make a cute egg holder. I was right, although, now I need to wait for the Easter Bunny to leave some surprises inside for me.

This was so easy to make. All I had to do was print the template from the Australian Stampin' Up! demonstrator website onto some cardstock, cut it out and decorate it as I saw fit. I've also used "A Good Egg" stamp set which I've only had a short time.

Supplies:

* A Good Egg Stamp Set.

* So Saffron & Regal Rose Cardstock. Spring Fling DSP (Retiring) and Watercolour Wonder Paper.

* Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, 1/3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch & Crimper.

Pretty Post It Notes

I have always enjoyed making pretty little covers for my post it notes. There great for giveaway's and I love keeping one in my handbag for times when I need a piece of paper while I'm out and about. There also very quick and easy to make, which for me, is a bonus as my attention span can, at times be rather short.

Today I'd like to show you this cute little post it note holder I made on the weekend. I had recently received the Spring Fling DSP pack and wanted to make the most of it and my square scallop punch. I hope you like today's project.

Supplies:

* It's all Good Stamp Set.

* So Saffron and Whisper White Cardstock.

* Regal Rose Stamp Pad.

* Regal Rose5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon.

Altered Note Box

I saw these cute little note blocks in our local two dollar shop and couldn't resist picking up a few to alter. This is the first I've done and I'm really happy with the end result. I covered the inside and outside of the box using DSP. I've also covered and used a chipboard letter 'N' (I'm not sure if it's going to stand for Nerine or Notes or possibly even Nerines Notes) on the top of the box for added dimension. To finish off the project, I've also carried through the DSP onto the first page of the note pad stack within the box. Below is a picture of the interior of the box with it's note stack. I hope you like today's off the page creation.

Supplies:

* Ginger Blossom DSP.

* Really Rust Stamp Pad.

* On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard, Square Scallop Punch, sponge & Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon.

Back to School - Mini Back Pack

Well, to celebrate my children going back to school tomorrow, and my youngest starting preschool today I created this cute little mini back pack. It's made out of one piece of 12"x12" cardstock and about a third of a sheet of DSP.

The entire bag actually opens up and you can pop cute little somethings within each of the sections. I've closed the top 'main' section of the bag with a ribbon which can be easily undone. The bottom section I've temporarily sealed with the two way glue pen. I hope you like today's off the page creation.

Supplies:

* River Rock Textured 12"x12" Cardstock. Ginger Blossom DSP.

* Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon.

* Sticky Strip, 12" Trimmer with Scoring Blade.

* CM Oval Cutting System and a button from my spare button jar.

Decorated Glass

With so much landfill being created these day's from rubbish, I've made a conscientious effort to minimise our household waste. So, if you ever visit, when I offer you a drink, you'll most likely receive your beverage in an old (and cleaned out) condiment jar. I particularly like using the Hazelnut Spread jars as their a good size and are perfect for turning into glassware. What's more, if one accidentally smashes, it's inexpensive to replace and I'll constantly have a perfect set.

This week, I decided to get creative with my recycled glassware by using Rub On's. So, playing around a little, I decided the above would make a great candle jar, lolly jar (which was my original intent before the family ate the lollies) or, with just a few extra rub-on's I could individualise each glass to give it that little something extra. This is exactly what I've done for this milk glass which my daughter has claimed as her own.

As for cleaning, I've found that the rub on's don't mind a warm soapy but gentle handwash but I wouldn't recommend popping them into a dishwasher.

Supplies:
* Cherished Memories Rub Ons.
* Old Jar.

Embrace Life Key Ring

Wednesday brings with it my 'off the page' creations, which is my attempt to move away from simply filling my blog with handmade cards and scrapbook pages. Today, I created two projects - however I'll save the second for next week.

This week, I'd like to show you the handmade keyring I created. I've water coloured and sponged the image and used the new scallop square punch to create a pretty boarder around the image. My crop-a-dile has punched the hole for the keyring chain to go through.

Now that I've photographed my keyring, I'm going to use my crystal effects on one side of the creation to give it a glossy, glass like and hard protective coating. Once the first side has dried, I'll turn the keyring tag over and place crystal effects on the reverse as well. If your wondering why I didn't photograph the project after using the crystal effects, it's because the glass like effect of the crystal effects makes photographing difficult as a result of the shiny surface once dried. I hope you like tonights quick and easy 'off the page' creation.

Supplies:

* Embrace Life Stamp Set.

* Black StazOn Stamp Pad.

* Watercolour Wonder Paper & Ballet Blue Cardstock.

* Rich Regals Water Colour Wonder Crayons, Neutral Crayons & Aqua Painter.

* Keyring taken from a useless spare I had around the house.

Tissue Box Cover

In my household, we go through tissues at a rate approximately that of the speed of light! Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little - but with three young children I'm sure you can appreciate that I purchase the cheapest tissues I can find. Unfortunately the boxes are never display worthy and this posses a problem, as I also keep my tissues on the buffet, in full view, where the children can reach them.

So, in an effort to make my tissue box not only look prettier, but also co-ordinate with my furniture - today I made the above. It slides onto the top of the box and used 2.5 sheet's of A4 cardstock, and was simple to make up. I just measured the box and added on 1cm where required for fold in tabs, which attached to other sections of the box.

As a note however if your considering making this yourself...stamp your images BEFORE you adhere your box together. I decided to stamp as an after-thought and unfortunately the images are not as 'crisp' as they usually are. A brass frame is attached to the top of the box, with the sentiment "Bless You!" written within. I hope you like this idea.

Supplies:

* BoHo Backgrounds Stamp Set.

* River Rock Stamp Pad.

* River Rock, Always Artichoke Cardstock & Le Jardin DSP.

* Sticky Strip, Antique Brass HodgePodge, Always Artichoke Marker, Soft Sky Double Stitched Ribbon, Glue Dots & Fiskers trimmer with scoring blade.

Christmas Photo Display

While I was away with the family in Darwin, naturally Jas and I organised for the kids to have their photo taken with Santa. Here are my three children, smiling away together. I'm really happy, this is the first year where Jas and I have NOT had to be in the Santa photo to placate an upset child. For us, it was very exciting!

Each year, I remove the previous years Santa photo from it's frame and scrapbook it. I then place the new Santa photo into the frame and place it on (usually) the buffet. This year, our 5x7 photo was a little smaller than last years 6x8, so I needed to matt it to fit the frame. I thought I'd begin the scrapbooking process by matting decoratively. Then, next year when I'm ready to commit this photo to a scrapbook, the process will take just a few minutes.

Although simple, I'm really happy with how this turned out. I think the simplicity here will allow me, next year, the freedom to add a header, journalling and embellishments to tie the photo and current matt on a 12x12 page. I hope you like this idea!

Supplies:
* Old Olive, Real Red & Dashing DSP.
* Sticky Strip.
* Photo Frame.

Bits & Pieces Keeper:

Normally I try not to post twice in the same day, but I had to share with you all, the bits and pieces keeper I've just finished. I saw this idea on a fellow SU Demo's web site (Thanks Ngaire) a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. However, I had to wait for a trip to Darwin before I could find and purchase the lazy susan that the can's are positioned on.

This was essentially very easy to make - with the hardest thing being, "what do I do with 5 can's tomatoes?". I've chosen fall flowers to cover the cans with, and on every second can, have also added grosgrain ribbon. I've seen some demonstrators use hodgepodge on their cans to hold labels, but I've decided not to do this, as I probably wouldn't put things back in their right tin anyway, and it also allows me to change the contents if need be.

Supplies:
* Fall Flowers DSP.
* Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon.
* Sticky Strip & Mini Glue Dots.
* 6 x Normal Sized Cans and 1 x Long Thin Can.
* Lazy Susan from Home in Darwin.

Wild about Candles:

Hello readers. I know it's been quite some time between posts again, but I do have an excuse. I've been busy creating throughout the week, projects for workshops and gifts for Lucky Door Prizes, Hostess Gifts and other little giveaway prizes. Naturally, I couldn't show you these items until they had been seen by their recipients - and making all this left me short of time to make anything else solely to post in the interim. The good news about the delay in posting, is that I now have at least a weeks worth of creations to show you over the next week or so.

Moving on, over the weekend, the children and I had HEAPS of fun creating 4oz Soy Wax candles. I'll be showing you the other candles in other posts, however, this is my 6 y/o son's contribution. He made a 'fruit tingle' candle and chose to colour it KTM Orange (the colour of his KTM 50 race bike). We've then decorated it together with bright colours that matched both the tin and the candle. I never realised how easy it is to make candles, and I think I'll be doing this more often. Thank you Melissa who's innocently 'hooked' me on this great and easy pastime. I'll definitely be passing the word on about WildCandles.

Supplies:
* Circle of Friendship Stamp Set.
* Red Stamp Pad.
* Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper, Real Red and Whisper White Cardstock.
* Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, 1/1/4" and 1/3/8/" Circle Punch.

What's in the Box?

Hello everyone! Well, it's been a week since I posted anything here and your all probably wondering what happened to me. First my keyboard decided to die an agonising (and might I also add, very annoying) death, and then the family and I drove up to Darwin for a shopping trip for a few days. With both those two little things, a whole week has flown by.

So, to make amends for my absence, I've created this cute little 3x3 notecard set which is held within the above box. I hope you like it. The notecards themselves were incredibly easy to do as was the little box, but I have to confess, this project was very time consuming. I started it last night and it took the better part of 3 hours to complete. Now I know what I'm doing though, I'm sure the next one won't take nearly as long.

Anywho, here's the 6 little 3x3 love notes I created to pop into the box:

(apologies for the over exposed shot, this was the best I could take today, I seem to have the shakes again)

Supplies:

* Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Berry Bliss DSP.

* Occasional Greetings & Circle of Friendship Stamp Sets.

* 1/1/4 Square Punch, 1/3/8 Circle Punch, 1/1/4 Circle Punch, Scallop Punch.

* Sticky Strip, SNAIL & Stampin' Dimensionals.

My First Coaster Calender:

I'm so excited...why your probably asking - well, let me fill you in. For absolutely AGES now I've been wanting to make little coaster calenders and little coaster books. The problem, was that to find coasters to purchase, the chipboard variety you often find in pubs, is virtually impossible in Australia (for me anyway).

Well, going back a few years ago my Mum gave Jas and I their old, beautiful panel wood and stained glass bar as they were re-decorating their home. On the weekend, I was cleaning out the bar because Jas NEVER does, and what should I find closeted away in a far corner...yup, you guessed it, chipboard coasters...and not just one or two - but a whole box of 250 which I can hoade!!!

So, I did what any normal person would do. I stopped cleaning HIS bar, made myself a fruit tingle (my favourite all time cocktail), claimed the box of coasters as 'payment' for improving the cleanliness of the bar and sat down to make the below.

Here's the front:

And here's the inside:

Supplies:

* Holiday Harmony DSP.

* Always Artichoke & River Rock Cardstock.

* Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon

* Cherished Memories Rub Ons, Crop-A-Dile & Anywhere Glue Stick.

Grandma's Brag Book:

Here we have a cute 'country' inspired brag book which holds 10 photos in plastic sleeves. I'm really happy with how it turned out since I was just playing around when I made it, and this was my first (not second or even third) attempt at the design...I got it right first time...Yay!!!

At the risk of sounding even more immodest as I go on and on about this little project, I'm even happy with the colour scheme which I came by as I threw scraps of cardstock in a pile. As fate had it, Real Read sat beside Old Olive which was sitting on some left over Kraft cardstock and they looked great together.

As for the stamp set, I chose Petal Prints because it's such a versatile set that I hadn't used in quite some time. So, I dusted it, as well as my sizzix machine and Lollipop Upper and Lower alphabets off to create the focal point and script. I hope you like it!

Supplies:
* Petal Prints Stamp Set.
* Whisper White, Real Red, Kraft and Old Olive Cardstock.
* Real Red and Old Olive SU Markers. VersaMark.
* Real Red Gingham Ribbon & 2 Way Glue Pen. Metallic Eyelets.
* Sizzix Machine, Lollipop Upper & Lower Case Alphabet.

Travel Document Wallet:

Last week, my Mother asked me if I could organise some travel so she could come and visit the kids, Jas and I in the NT toward the end of next month. My Mum struggles a little when it comes to booking flights etc over the Internet, so I was happy to do this for her and I printed out all her travel documents.

I then decided to make up a cute little itinerary from her 'family agent' - it was sort of a little joke while still having fun on my part. So, now with my pseudo professional travel agent front, I decided to follow through fully, and made her this cute little Travel Document Wallet to pop all her tickets etc into. I based the design on the document wallets we use at my 'real' job.

I've water-coloured the flowers in Purely Pomegranate and Wild Wasabi, and I've also pierced around the edge on the front of the wallet. The ribbon ties to hold everything inside, and the interior has a sort of half sleeve so the documents don't fall out of the bottom or the side of wallet.

Here's the inside:

Supplies:
* Birthday Best Stamp Set.
* Soft Subtles Textured 12x12 (Blush Blossom), Basic Gray, Whisper White and Purely Pomegranate Cardstock. Holiday Harmony DSP.
* Basic Gray, Purely Pomegranate and Wild Wasabi Stamp Pads.
* Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon. Word Window Punch, Photo Corners Punch, Mat Pack, Piercing tool, Stampin' Dimensionals, Basic Black Marker, Glue Dots & Pretties Kit.