More Friendship Blooms

It was my best friend Donna's birthday today - so I got to kreate some more. I am so in love with the big flower in Friendship Blooms which is so easy to cut out I thought I'd keep playing with the stamp set a bit more.

I had seen this card I really liked on Jayne Mercer's blog a while back which I cased. As purple is Donna's favourite colour I used Lavender Lace & Almost Amethyst & of course Certainly Celery for the green. Glitter & clear microbeads added to Crystal Effects again for a bit of bling.

I loved the card so much that I didn't want to give it away but so did she (lucky for her!)

Finally a reason to be creative

Wow since returning from my wee holiday to Whangamata I've been busy preparing for the Auckland Extravaganza next week - have I stamped & cut (& still not quite there yet but close). I didn't know that stamping was an exercise until now, but let me assure you I've sweated for you plus my shoulder & right thumb aches.

So I was delighted that my friend Jackie was free yesterday to join me for afternoon tea. She celebrated her birthday whilst I was away so this gave me a chance to play with stamps & bake (another passion of mine). As I'd missed the real event I just wanted a wee decorative container/bag to put in a few movie tickets (talk about a hoot she actually gave me a "boring" envelope with two in too as my Chrissie pressie at the same time).

In class last year I'd learnt to make a bag-a-lope - a decorative bag made out of a plain white envelope & completely forgot how to do it. So I Googled the term - I love Google!! It's so easy can't believe I could have forgotten how - so as I'm so kind to you I have made a bag-a-lope tutorial

Inspiration was taken from the original bag-a-lope I learnt to make using the Petals stampin' around wheel & Polka Dots & Paisley both of which were in our Spring Mini Catalogue & a lovely card my fantastic upline Jacque gave us all at Christmas - she used two of the FREE sets that are available as part of Sale-A-Bration at the moment - Friendship Blooms and Lots of Thoughts.

So I still used the same wheel for the background with Certainly Celery ink. Embossed the largest flower on Pretty in Pink cardstock with white & then added the highlights as "per Jacque" with my white Signo gel pen (the bestest & whitest - says me who has a few other models that are hopeless - yes one learns through one's mistakes). Crystal Effects & clear microbeads added to centre of flower to add pizazz - all cut out & mounted on Whisper White with the flourish from Friendship Blooms stamped randomly in the background. Then mounted on Bashful blue.

I made a little flap for the top & used the Cheers to You & It's Your Special Day sayings from Lots of Thoughts & then stamped a wee flower from the Friendship Blooms set again. A bit of pink grosgrain ribbon, a few dimensionals & all done. Much prettier than a "boring envelope" & so easy.

And by the way the Upside Down Blueberry & Apricot Cake wasn't bad either. Cheers for now :-)

Happy 9th Birthday Morgan

Wow perfect timing I was reading some blogs tonight & found some lovely person had done a very similar card to this which is just perfect for a wee girl's birthday.

It's Morgan's 9th birthday tomorrow & so have added the no. 9 from Tidy Numbers & sweet & cute from So Very. The lovely butterfly & flowers are from Reason to Smile which is a Hostess Level 1 set.

Ink: Pixie Pink, Brocade Blue, Orchard Opulence, Certainly Celery (wish I'd chosen a different green now but getting too late to start again).
CS: Pixie Pink & Whisper White
Ribbon: Orchid Opulence
Also added glitter to tear & mounted the no. 9 & cute up on dimensionals.

The card we all hate to do :-(

Yep a sympathy card, a dear friend of Pete's lost her dad on Christmas day, which makes the loss doubly worse.

I took inspiration from a card I saw on SCS created by Stampingfool2003:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/387130?cat=785&si=sympathy

With a few modifications hopefully I made it my own, I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the background CS. I also used my scallop corner rounder from Creative memories as I felt that blended in with the textile texture embossing.

Stamp set: Roses In Winter, Thinking of You from All Year Cheer I
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla
Inks: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery

I hope Win finds it comforting.

Donna's Chocolate brownie

Do not read on if you've made any New Year's resolutions to lose weight - I think this recipe would have you barred from joining Weight Watcher's forever.

As some of you may know I volunteer for a few shifts at the ASB Classic tennis tournament in Auckland, one famous player's coach cajoled my mate Donna into making brownie for us all (& himself - I hear the rumour was he ate 5 pieces - I only ate 3). It was magnificent the best ever!

So I attempted to emulate her efforts, hampered by my lack in finding Cadbury chocolate balls & I settled for milk chocolate buds - it tasted yummy but should have got dark chocolate buds as the lighter colour ones showed. I have reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe by 1/2 a cup but feel I could still reduce it to 1 cup total (Donna had 2 cups in her recipe!) I'm trying to cut some calories out here.

Microwave 200g butter & 1 cup of cocoa - until the butter has melted.
Add 1 1/2 cup sugar, 4 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 3/4 cup flour, 1 heaped tsp baking powder.
Mix well & add 250g bag of Cadbury chocolate balls, mix again.
Pour into a lined greased roll tin.
Bake 150oC for 30-40 minutes.
Slice into small squares when cool, dust with icing sugar before serving if desired (& go on serve it with whipped cream - what's a few other calories between friends).

YAH I have a tidy craft room :-))

Finally everything is put away where it's supposed to be & I found these awesome sturdy paper holders which easily hold a 12 x 12" paper with room to spare. They were at the local $1/$2/$3 shop in West City but they were closer to $4 if I remember rightly, but they were worth every cent as I have order where there once was chaos. Wish I'd taken a before & after photo. The stamps are stacked up high too so I can see what I want instead of scrabbling around on the ground, so much easier on my back.

My desk/creativity area is looking clutter free (for me) so a good start to the New Year!

A belated Happy New Year

Only 5 days late (but had to catch up with my Christmas posts), Pete, Keegan & myself saw 2007 out standing on top of the downtown car-park building watching the firework display from Sky Tower. It was a great spot - shame about the traffic leaving but still I was home within half an hour so can't complain.

The highlight of the evening was finding this amazing Mediterranean restaurant in Bacon Lane just of Chancery Lane called Invito - it was magnificent, superb food, good friendly service & really reasonable. I had the salt & pepper squid salad with a raspberry chilli vinaigrette - delicimo!! And the desserts were fantastic too.

So resolutions for 2008 - started by tidying up my craft room (wonder how long it will last like that?)

To kreate & blog more - happy 2008 to YOU ALL - love moi xox

My family Christmas 2007

Just a few shots of some of the presies & my smallest nieces & nephews that were there - but aren't they growing up too quickly.

The REAL CHRISTMAS CARD

Decided ages ago (why didn't I start ages ago!!) that I was going to use Peaceful Wishes for my Christmas card - problem is there are so many great ideas for using it. Then we made a version in class using Creamy Caramel ink & cardstock, a few gold brads, ivory organdy ribbon, gold cord & it was paper pierced (& I do love that effect), plus a bit of glitter & distressing - viola - magnificent!

I thought it looked very classy & said "THIS IS IT................"

So why oh why was it 9 days to Christmas & not one card made, well 9 hours later I was the proud owner of 30 of them (temporarily) so hopefully they all arrived on time.

This is one of my many resolutions for 2008 to start earlier!

Merry Christmas Australia from the kiwi

Wow I'll have to listen to my own words of wisdom next year & start my cards mid-year, as it was it was 10 days to Christmas & not one card had been sent to Oz so my Aussie friends had to make do with left overs from market day - sorry guys & gals. Saying that I think they actually were rather lovely & nearly made them for all as I was aware that time was rushing by (wish I had but more on that later). This was a quick card but looked really effective!

I used the versatile Lovely As a Tree stamp set & peace was punched out with the window punch from the saying "Peace, Love, Joy" which is one of the stamps in All Year Cheer I. Regal Rose ink & card stock used, then Versamark was stamped on using one of the Itty Bitty Background stamps & embossed with white EP & glitter - looked just like glittery snow.

Merry Christmas from across the ditch!!