Secret Santa

Our SU team has a Christmas dinner every year and we all get allocated a person to be Secret Santa for. We don't spend a lot on gifts, but most of the fun is in the packaging and wrapping and making the present look totally gorgeous.

I was SS for Rachel and these are the gifts I made for her:

Here are the packets individually:

The decorated glass bauble from yesterday's post

A box containing gift tags

A container of Smooch Spritz (looks like a Toblerone!)

Some Xmas ribbons in a small window box

A mini bag in a box with shimmer paint inside

Three spray bottles to use for water or shimmer paint

Tubes filled with antique brads, brads and label holders from hodgepodge hardware and Christmas coloured jelly beans and I made a box to store them in.

Phew! So many photos - I'll have to come back another day to show you the beautiful things my SS gave me!

Have a great day.

Cheers

Kez

Plethora of Christmas

Here's a bunch of Christmas cards I've made lately:

This one was cased from Teneale and others, and I used the snowflakes from Snow Swirled to make my wreath. I added dazzling diamonds, which you can't see in the photo.

Another card using Delightful Decorations and the Ornament Punch. Trying to add some vintage glam!

This one is my favourite, so simple and so evocative. The wreath was made using a flower from the Boho Blossoms punch and the Vintage brad makes the perfect door knob!

This one uses a set I was lucky enough to get from the US called Bells and Boughs. I've used the Petals APlenty embossing folder, which matches the poinsettia so well!

Another Bells and Boughs with Petals APlenty, this time using the technique where you mask the embossing to create a gap for stamping on. I painted the poinsettia with Champagne shimmer paint, which you can see in the following close up: 

Gorgeous effect!

Well, I think that may be the last of my Christmas cards this year apart from a few special ones for special people. Still plenty of Christmas boxes, bags and tags to make yet, though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Borrowed Genius

For this month's Christmas Stamp-a-Stack cards I have borrowed from the creative genius of others. In other words, CASEd shamelessly! LOL

The first one is cased from Kim Gavarra with some changes in colour. The ribbon is contraband as SU haven't given us any Cherry Cobbler ribbon - WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????!!! Here's the card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Welcome Christmas
• card - Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler
• inks - Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
• other - Cherry Cobbler marker, scissors, dimensionals, non SU organza ribbon, sponge dauber, non SU bow tying machine

My second card is cased from Sarah-Jane Kale and again I have changed the colours. I just love the vintagey look of this one:

Materials used:

• stamps - Delightful Decorations, Christmas Greetings
• card - Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler
• inks - Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
• other - ornament punch, adhesive pearl, very vanilla satin ribbon, dimensionals, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Big Shot, sponge dauber

Of course, you know it's only about 7 weeks until Christmas, don't you? YIKES!

Thanks for calling in. Have a great day.

Cheers
Kez

Cherries and Plums

I have had such a fun afternoon, taking part in my very first online tutorial! I was a bit nervous at first that I would press the wrong buttons and not be able to see the instructions - wouldn't be the first time, LOL! - but I managed to work everything OK and keep up with the lesson.

We were making a most adorable cupcake box and I decided to jumbo size mine and turn it into a Christmas gift box, complete with mini Plum Pudding!

I used Cherry Cobbler (of course!) with Jolly Holiday designer papers, added some Old Olive satin ribbon and a tag made from Delightful Decorations and the Ornament Punch. I also made a little matching "hat" for the plum pudding! Take a lookie:

Yum yum! You can't go wrong with cherries and plums, LOL! (hey, that rhymes!)

Hope you like it, thanks for stopping by today.

Cheers
Kez

Cards For Our Troops

It's only 4 sleeps now until my very special event making Christmas cards for Aussie troops serving overseas in combat zones to send home to their families and loved ones. All stations are GO! (as Thunderbirds would say!) and I've a few things still to organise, so will be MIA for a few days here on the blog.

These are the card designs for everyone to make; I kept them as simple and straightforward as I could without being too plain (IYKWIM):

We have some fantastic raffle prizes and lucky door prizes to give away, thanks to the generosity of Stampin' Up!, my upline Marelle Taylor and fellow demos Juliette Chapman, Nikki Stalker and Robyn Irving. So I am looking forward to a fun day for a wonderful cause and I'll be back next week.

Have a good one!

Cheers
Kez

Lovin' That Ornament Punch!

I know it's mean to taunt you all with my gorgeous Ornament Punch when you don't have one yourselves, but console yourself with the fact that you WILL be able to get one from 1st September! Oh yeah, you read it right, that baby is in the new IB&C, along with my fav Xmas stamp set, Delightful Decorations.

Just to keep you going until you can order these delightfully delicious goodies, here is a Christmas card I cased from Chat. I've used Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive and think they make rather a lovely Xmas combo, so might just have to use them again!

Noice!

Now, for my next card you will need to sneak into your soundproof room and bolt the door, cos you are gonna squeal so loudly with awe and glee that the family will think something is wrong and come a-runnin'!!! I am talking SERIOUSLY cute people! This one I cased from the very talented Jackie Topa and it was soooooooooooo much fun to create.

Here's the outside.

Can you tell me these two little tykes aren't just the cutest thing? Busy makin' their snowman with their cheeks flushed from the cold crisp air ... Awwwwwwwww! But wait! There is more to come, yes indeedy! For when you open up the card you find ...

Is that awesomely cute or WHAT? LOL! Even my DH (who is most definitely NOT known for his praise of my cards - amazing, I know!) said of this card: "Now THAT is a real card!"

So there you have it. If the ornament punch was not number one on your wish list from the new catty, it will be now I'm sure. And so my work is done!

Cheers
Kez

If At First You Don't Succeed

This is a card I made last year with a thought to using it for my Stamp-a-Stack classes, but I wasn't entirely happy with it and didn't end up using it. I call this version 1:

So, I am now planning my SAS for this month and decided to revamp the card.

The things I didn't like were the line at the end of the embossing (above the sentiment), the gap left above the left hand bauble, and the ribbon. So I put my thinking cap on and made some changes: added another layer (which I think makes it look more finished), embossed the greeting (to eliminate the line) and shortened the top panel (to eliminate the gap above the bauble). Here is version 2:

Still not entirely happy - not sure about the stamped sentiment being embossed, plus I think the embossed background dominates the card a little - not what I was after.

Thinking cap back on, reverted to original size for the top panel and moved the sentiment from the larger piece, allowing me to still emboss the whole bit. Now the embossed background does what it is meant to - stays in the background - while my front panel is the main focal point and the sentiment fills in the gap above the baubles. Hooray for version 3!

This gorgeous ornament stamp is from a set called Delightful Decorations, which I was lucky enough to receive from a friend in Canada last year. It comes with a matching punch - the ornament punch, which you've seen samples from recently - which makes it oh so easy! You may perhaps see these two items around quite a lot after 1st September ...

Thanks for calling in today. Have a good one!

Cheers
Kez

I Wish

A while back I did a class with team mate Sue where we made a totally GORJUS mini scrapbook album using half of an "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' Kit. I have since made another one and put my own 'stamp' on it, as it were (I know, a poor pun!) and am running classes to make them, the first of which is tomorrow night. I have one spot left so if you are interested in coming along, please let me know. I am also happy to bring the class to your place if you and some friends would like me to, or maybe even making a kit you can buy by mail if there is a demand.
Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

Ain't it cute?! The hard part is deciding which photos to put in there!

Thanks for dropping by today. Have a great week!

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: the last spot has been filled. If you missed out just contact me for another class time.

Delightful Snowflakes

The brief for Creatalicious Challenge No. 4 is to make something for Christmas and include snowflakes and lots of sparkle/glitter. As I'm still "in love" with my Delightful Decorations set and punch, I planned to use them for my card and I saw some sparkly snowflakes at my LSS that I just couldn't resist!

Created by Kez. Stamped images © 1990-2009 Stampin' Up! ®

For the background I used my brayer to add ink to the inside of my embossing folder, put my piece of card inside and then ran it through the machine. This put ink in the debossed areas and left the embossed areas to really stand out. If anyone knows how to get bling to photograph well, let me know!

Anyway, hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Next Year I'll Be Wiser

The Christmas countdown tells me I am fast running out of time and I am still making my own Xmas cards. Next year I will be wiser and when my class are making them at Stamp-a-Stacks, I will be making them too! I have been having fun making more cards using Delightful Decorations and the matching Ornament Punch, both of which I totally ADORE (and they were a big hit at the team meeting on Monday!).

Lots of texture on this first one with ribbon and embossed shapes. I love this snowflake paper from the Ski Slope set.

A touch of bright with some Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo. The small stamps that come in the set make a great background.

Love red and white together (not surprisingly, as red is my favourite colour!). Cased this one but don't know where from! Thanks for the inspiration, whoever you are.

Some Baja breeze and chocolate chip, cased from Jan Tink. Nice to shake it up with non traditional colours every once in a while!

And some gift tags too, which this stamp and punch combo are PERFECT for. So quick and easy - punched the base from cardstock that was folded to make a double shape. Stamp the two designs, punch them out then adhere to the card one. Punch a hole, add cord and presto! All finished. I think Santa might use a whole bunch of these this year!

Not to freak you out, but have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? Me neither - barely started, in fact! Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kez

I Don't Believe It

I don't believe it! I have the evidence right here in front of my eyes but I still don't believe it! I actually made another card WITH NO STAMPS! OK, pick yourself up off the floor and take a gander at this gourmet feast for the eyes:

Isn't it GORJUS?! I may enter it into Marelle's challenge, although it doesn't use any current Australian SU stuff! The cardstock and papers, as well as the die cut sentiment, are from last year (we all remember purely pomegranate and river rock!). The baubles were made using a punch that is in the current US/Canadian mini, but hasn't yet reached our shores.

I have it because I am a lucky, lucky girl. Yesterday I received a gift from a friend in Canada and what do you think it was? A totally GORJUS stamp set called Delightful Decorations and a matching punch! You may have seen them on many overseas blogs, as they are so BEEE-UU-TEE-FULL that everyone is playing with them!

Here's another card - this time with some stamping on it - using my wonderful new goodies! I've added some bling for an extra bit of Christmas sparkle!

Aren't they cute? Hope they come our way soon so you can all love them as much as I do. Well, I'd better get back to work! Hope you are having a lovely day; thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez