It's Chinese new year!

Wishing you a prosperous Chinese new year on February 3!

For details on the lucky card above, click here.


And how about some Chinese Almond Cookies to celebrate the occasion?

Finally getting ready for Christmas...

If you have a spare minute, why not pop over to my Craft blog to see my Christmas cards for this year.

Weekend craft and tonkotsu noodles

This post is a bit of a mish-mash, but it pretty much sums up last weekend for me.

First up, there was the Craft Fair at Darling Harbour. The focus of this craft fair was very much on quilting, beading and sewing, with only 4 stalls in 'Papercraft Alley', which was disappointing. And not much paper at all, with mainly stamps, punches and diecuts in abundance. My favourite stamping shop, Art Stamps Australia, had a stall where I stocked up on Hero Arts stamps. I've been after the little dude holding the gold block for ages, and was sooo happy to find it!

Also got some Chalkbox queues and the new American Crafts Zing! embossing powders - can't wait to use them...

Spoils from the Craft Fair - quite restrained, I think

Then I stopped of at Eating World in Chinatown for a bowl of the famous tonkotsu noodles. This pork bone soup was so thick, it was like drinking gravy - perfect for winter. I had it with a seasoned egg - double yum...


Back home, I had to make a wedding card for my cousin in Canada. Here is the final result...

The inside has the obligatory space for the money envelope (Cuttlebug embossed).

The card is made from lightweight Bazzill cardstock (easier to air mail), circle-punched KI Memories glitter lace cardstock, American Crafts rub-on for the 'best wishes', and a cute bride and groom sticker from Krafty Kutz Australia (from the Craft Fair!). The edge was done with Fiskars' apron lace punch.

Velvet and embossed wedding card

One of my cousins is getting married in a couple of weeks, and this is a card I made for her wedding.

In the tradition of most weddings these days, a wishing well is going to be made available at the reception so that contributions to the honeymoon can be made. So, I've included a place for the money envelope inside the card.
The bronze embossing on the righthand side of the front of the card is done with the Cuttlebug 'Texture' folder - so pretty!

Supplies: Velvet paper: Doodlebug Designs. Stamp: Hero Arts.

Ribbon, scallop and circle punches: Stampin' Up!. Rub-ons: American Crafts. Cardstock: Bazzil

What day is it again?

I like to think of myself as being intermittently creative. That is, occasionally, I’ll come up with something artistic and go “ooh, that’s nice”. But those days can be pretty far between, which is why my craftiness is only a hobby.

Lin Mei, on the other hand, does it for a living. Which is why her input was greatly appreciated in the creation of this lovely calendar. LM came up with the design, as well as a great example for me to, um, rip off.

It’s not that easy, though, as we found out on that hot day in a non-air-conditioned house. It took us about 3 hours to come up with the ‘right’ colour combinations – we finished the calendar just as the cool southerly change blew through.

Here is the end result. The patterned papers are Basic Grey (Urban Prairie range), the bird cage transparency is by Hambly, and the ribbon and stamps are by Stampin’ Up!. Not too shabby, just shabby chic.

PS: We had lunch first at the Zumbo chocolate café (ham and cheese brioche, nice) and were going to go back for dessert after the marathon craft session. But, dammit, the café closes at 4pm on weekdays! Denied!

Christmas cards 2008 – ahead of the game!

I finally found time to finish making this year’s Christmas cards, and, believe the hype, they are nothing short of sensational (alright, I’m exaggerating a bit here; they are just OK).

It’s always a strain coming up with ideas, and this time was no different. Especially since 2008 was the year I discovered online scrapbooking shops (hence lots of unused purchases) and my friend Lin Mei became a Stampin’ Up demonstrator (pressure to make something presentable). Which is why I motivated myself with a Ferrero Rocher chocolate after completing every 3 cards.

I settled for the same basic idea for all the cards: stamping on acetate using stazon ink, then embellished with cuttlebug card, ribbon, and stamped image. I didn’t end up using much of my scrapbooking paper (hello Doodlebug velvet embossed, you are still pure and uncut), which begs the question, what the heck am I saving it for??!! (that’s a rhetorical question, no response required).

The Perfect Weekend (part 2)

Here is the craft and cards part of last weekend, when we visited the Sydney Paper Crafts Festival, held at Canterbury Racecourse. Obviously, all the horses were resting up for the Melbourne Cup, so the track was deserted. Not so inside the function centre where the usual crowd of ladies and their fed up men were milling around the paper crafting stalls.

This was a smaller fair than, say, the craft fair at Darling Harbour, which was a good thing, since I only had limited time to visit all the stalls before getting back on the bus to the Zumbo café. I also wanted to see my friend Lin Mei, who doing demos was at the Stampin’ Up! stand. The SU! stand was the most enticing, with the demonstrators’ creations adorning the wall. It looked really good. LM also did a great job showing off her wonderful stamping and colouring skills.

My highlight was finding some of the new KI Memories Sheer Delights transparencies, which are semi-opaque thick plastic sheets in modern prints with die cut edges. They are lovely enough to use as placemats. I think I should have bought more. I also got some Doodlebug Designs flocked paper (red design in the photo) which will work well on Christmas cards, and a Hambly Screen Print transparency.

And then we topped it off with hot chocolate and dessert at Zumbo. What more could I ask for? (Maybe a win in the office Cup sweep, but that was not to be).

One weekend, 3 festivals, 2 cards

In the space of this weekend, I did 2 loads of washing, semi-cleaned the house, made 2 dinners, visited 3 festivals, and made 2 cards.

On Saturday, we went to the Nicholson St Public School Halloween festival, which was filled with creepy vampires and skeletons in trees. And also lots of children dressed as witches .
On Sunday, it was off to the Norton St Festa in Leichhardt, which had lots of cute Fiat cars and coffee stalls. The fine weather really brought out the crowds who were appreciative of the Italian cooking and concert in the Pioneer Memorial Park.
Then, it was off by bus and train and mini-bus to the Danks St Festival in Waterloo. This had lots of dogs and art galleries, topped of by long queues at the many food stalls (I ate a great lamb souvlaki followed by a palmier and a bit of blood orange meringue). It also had a mini design mart that sold textiles, jewellery and artworks. By the end of it, my feet were killing me.

So where are the photos, you ask. Well, I accidentally deleted them from my camera card before I copied them to the computer. D'oh!!!!

In order to keep the post colourful, here are the cards I made. They were made at the request of my aunt, to give to a friend celebrating a birthday, and for a couple who are having their 50th wedding anniversary.

The birthday card features a Stampin' Up stamp in Real Red ink (it worked real well on the Whisper White card), and lace cardstock.
The anniversary card has a 'medallion' made from about 8 layers of ink, gold embossing powder and heat embossing that was then stamped with a double happiness stamp. And good ol' cuttlebug Swiss Dots on the red cardstock.

Hopefully next weekend is as productive. And hopefully I won't accidentally delete evidence of it!

a last-minute baby shower card

So Mum phones up saying: "When you come over tomorrow, can you bring a baby shower card?".
Me: "What? What for?".
Mum: "I'm going to a baby shower and don't have a card".
Me: "What? Why?".
Mum: "I thought you'd have a card".
Me: "What? Why would I have a card?!?"

You get the drift. I spent an hour coming up with a card design that matched Mum's exacting specifications: 'not too big', 'not too small', 'no white', 'not for boy or girl' (?), 'a baby on the front' (I ignored this last one).

Postscript: Mum liked the card. I love the Threading Water hole punch!

Not a chook raffle, but better...

I was - lucky /fortunate /in the right place at the right time /all of the above - to win a prize in a Hero Arts challenge. Titled ‘about me’, you had to present a page about yourself that featured Hero Arts stamps. This was my entry.

I hardly ever win anything, so I was thrilled with this. Thank you, randomizer!

Christmas cards through the ages

I've made a start on this year's Christmas cards! I'm at least 2 months ahead of schedule, so that gives me time to reminisce a little...

Here are some of my cards from Christmas past. At least, going back to when I started taking photos of them. Photos are good, because I usually make too few cards and forget someone and have to use my leftovers to give them a card and don't have any left after Christmas. Phew!

The polar bear card is a favorite because it is a shaker card filled with holographic glitter. The polar bear stamp was a gift from a dear late friend who brought it back from Spitzbergen in Norway.

This year, I may do an acetate card, maybe something like this. But hopefully better than this first attempt. Ask me in December.

Some more spring-inspired craft

It's been a productive weekend craftwise, because I finished these 2 pictures and also put them into frames (the finishing touch). They are chipboard trees and birds (Maya Road) and a strip of flowers (Buzz and Bloom) that I painted with chalk ink and acrylic paint or covered with patterned paper or stamped. They are mounted onto black cardstock and are hung, I like to think, so they add an air of 'class' to the upstairs landing.

...a Hello Spring card

I made this spring-inspired card using almost all Stampin' Up! products. The stamps are from the In the Spotlight set, on Whisper White, Certainly Celery (I think) and Kraft notecard and the green Palette o' Prints paper. The ribbon is my favourite, Old Olive. Ink is Versamark, Colorbox chalk queue and Tombow markers. The little squares are clear heat embossed (though I should have inked the stamps a bit darker...).

I am hoping that this burst of inspiration will be the start of my Christmas card preparations. Will have to wait and see if Xmas cards eventuate in the next few weeks or (as usual) about 2 days before Xmas.

Red means good luck!

This is a card I made for my aunt’s tai chi teacher, who is turning eighty-something. I ran the red paper through the Cuttlebug using my one and only embossing folder, Bloom Dots (I noticed that paper can crinkle a bit whereas cardstock works better).

Inside the card are a couple of Chinese characters, for Longevity and Prosperity, stamped on gold paper and cut into circles and tied with red ribbon. The card is quite large, by the way (A4) because it is to be signed by all the teacher’s students.

Getting a start on Christmas cards

What do you do on a sunny Sunday afternoon? Why, go to into the office, of course. Actually, I’ve never been so keen to go to work on a weekend because a group of us had organised for our local friendly Stampin Up! demonstrator (Lin Mei) show us some products and to make a card.

As usual, it was so much fun (with a dash of frustration when things went awry). We were shown how to stamp using a two-step process, and (best of all) how to make a bog/bax (don’t ask, just look here). This is a card, stamped with a design and folded into the shape of a bag. Too clever.

Then, we each made a Christmas card. See my attempt below.

Thanks, Lin Mei, it was great. You can check out more of Lin Mei’s work here.

...a paper (chipboard) heart

Here is a card I made for a wedding RSVP. It was my first ever attempt at covering a piece of chipboard (the heart) and it won't be my last because I'd bought a box of the things. It wasn't too bad though.

The spotty circle stamps are 'Seeing Spots' from Stampin' Up!, as is the ink. I'm glad I'm getting back into the stampin' (up!).

...black and white daisy card

Here is a quick card I made with some scraps of cardstock I had lying around, and some new stamps (thanks Lin Mei!). I suppose I should do the usual crediting of suppliers...

Daisy by belle. Supplies Cardstock: Paddy's Market; Stamps: Friendship Blooms by Stampin' Up!; Ink: Versamark and Memories; Flower and brad: Target