Rollercoasters and Diggers

I have been riding such a rollercoaster of emotions since the earthquake in Christchurch last week. Some days life is normal; other days I feel so depressed and tears are never far beneath the surface. I can't read a newspaper article or see photos of Chch without crying. I found an article recently describing life post-quake in a suburban street - and was amazed to discover it was the street where we lived. It's here if you're interested in reading it. I simply can't imagine how the people who are living through this are coping emotionally and as for those who have lost loved ones ... well, I just don't know the words to adequately express my sorrow.

One thing that does help is the support and fellowship of friends, and I sincerely thank all of you who have left kind messages. Keeping busy is another help of course, and this week I have been finalising preparations for another Special Event for Australian troops serving in combat zones such as Afganistan, etc. You may remember that my wonderful customers and friends made over 350 Christmas cards for the troops last year; on Sunday we will be making Mother's Day cards to send so our Diggers can send them home.

Here are the cards I've prepared. They have been kept simple as we are making them like a Stamp-a-Stack and I'm hoping we'll get 200 completed. Most of the materials were generously donated by Stampin' Up!

I'm looking forward to a fun day for a very worthy cause.

I'll be back later today with the winners of the blog candy. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Boxed Set

Over at the UStamp with Dawn and Friends Year End Blowout 2010, one of the projects is a vintage boxed set of cards using the totally gorgeous Springtime Vintage papers and stamps in the US Occasions Mini.

Of course, we don't have those papers or stamps (but please, please, please SU, give them to us in April!) so I had to adapt. I wanted to use the Love Letters papers (I adore black and cream) and I wanted a little French chic! So I chose pink pirouette card to go with it and have used Aviary, Well Scripted and Curly Cute stamp sets for my cards.

Here's the complete set (click on any photo for a larger view):

The box:

The cards individually:

Now, unfortunately, with the differences in US sizing and ours, I discovered too late that our envelopes don't fit in the box! Darn it! Note to self: enlarge box sizes in the future. Ah well, such is life! Hope you like the set anyway.

If you are interested in signing up for UStamp and getting 40 fantastic projects, just click on the blinkie over on the right and it will take you to the right place.

Thanks for calling in today.

Cheers
Kez

"Regionals" Goodies

We had such a fun day on Monday at our own version of "Regionals". Robyn I showed us a staggering number of ways to use our embossing folders and we all loved having a play with those, Liam gave us a terrific gift box to make and I shared a lovely gift idea which, as mentioned in an earlier post, I can't show you until Friday night.

But here are a few photos of our goodies. First up is the lovely gift box we made with Liam. I changed mine slightly to use some gorgeous "cherry cobbler" satin ribbon - so luscious! - and added stamps from the Tags til Christmas set.

Next up are swaps, firstly a cute little milk carton Santa box from clever Liam:

Then this gorgeous card from Robyn I using Aviary, Well Scripted and the Square Lattice embossing folder, all from the Summer mini:

And this card from the lovely Kari with punch art Santa and Rudolph - sooooooooo cute!

We also received an adorable miniature star book that turns into an ornament to hang on the Christmas tree, from talented Robyn P:

And last but not least one of the shoebox projects (I didn't manage to get the other one made, sorry!). This one was from Robyn I and is the first time I've managed to make one of these awning cards - they've been on my "Must Do" list for ages, so thanks Rob! Doesn't the Daffodil Delight look gorgeous?

So as you can see, it was a MOST enjoyable day of crafting and fellowship and we've already started planning our "Convention" for next year!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez