Christmas comes but once a year.

Hello!

I hope you've had a lovely Christmas celebration. I had a wonderful time with family and friends and I thought I would just pop in quickly to show you some photos.

I made this framed scrap page for my sister-in-law. The wedding was only a few months ago and my girls were the flower girls. The wedding was in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. I love this photo with the fig tree in the background and all the girls admiring the bride just before they all walk down the aisle. Next time I'll remember to photograph the page before I frame it! It was very difficult to get a nice photo - and you can see a bit of the mess my workspace gets into when I'm creating!

With a crawler in the house, all our presents were 'behind bars' this year!

My lovely neighbour Megan brought us this gorgeous package filled with shortbread. I do love coordinating packaging! And the shortbread was so yummy it didn't last until Christmas! Thanks Megan!

I had all the family to stay over Christmas. This is the only photo I have of our tree - we had a real one this year. Those are my parents on Christmas morning - we can never get a photo of Mum with her eyes open.....!

Here we are at Christmas lunch.

We ate button squash, zucchini and cucumber from our vegie garden,

 my Dad always cooks his amazing Honey Mustard Glazed Ham,

and this year I used Maggie Beer's Turkey with Pistachio and Cumquat Stuffing recipe. It was SO good! The turkey really was juicy and flavoursome and this year I won't be throwing out any leftovers - they're too yummy! The recipe calls for candied cumquats. I couldn't find any of these but did find some cumquat marmalade made locally by Tambea Jams. It had big pieces of cumquat in it and worked really well. I didn't glaze the skin with marmalade as Maggie suggests (there was too much present opening fun going on!) but I found that it had crisped up nicely without it anyway.

I suppose that just leaves one thing......guess what I got for Christmas??

A Big Shot die-cutting machine!

I've been having some fun with it and will be back with some photos soon.

Christmas present sneak-peek!

Just popping in because I couldn't resist showing you this little gift I just finished for a special persons Christmas stocking.

I hope she enjoys giving them as much as I do!

Luminaires and Gift Tags

My last workshop for the year is this Thursday night. We'll be making a lovely little boxed set of Christmas gift tags.....

These are from a design by Madonna Dunn on the We Stamp for Lara forum.

And a Luminaire......

My "tea-light" cover has turned into a "big candle" cover!! I love the way the Dazzling Diamonds makes the Medallion glisten. It looks so beautiful with a candle behind it but will still look gorgeous sitting on the shelf in the daytime.

See you there!

The Library Ladies

On Friday night I had a really fun night with Amy's workmates - the Library Ladies. If you've been watching the news lately you'll have heard that Wagga is a bit wet at the moment - so wet that the Lagoon made it's way into the Library last Thursday night! Most of the ladies I met on Friday night had spent much of the afternoon ripping up carpet at the Library and trying to salvage things - I was glad that we had a fun and relaxing night planned after that!

The ladies all had a go at making some cards and then everyone made one of these Apple Blossom boxes.

Not many were actually decorated with the Apple Blossom stamps - originality reigned supreme on Friday night! - but nevertheless I decided to photograph it in my Gala apple tree. Both of my apple trees are looking a bit moth-eaten at the moment as the Leaf Cutter Bees have been making good use of them. I think the scallop circle punch cut out at the top reflects a bit of how they look!

Christmas, Regionals and Elements of Style......

Thank-you to all the lovely ladies who came along and made Christmas cards with me! We had a really fun night! Hopefully by now you have all enjoyed your special little take home treat!

The Saturday following our Christmas Card night I flew to Sydney for Stampin' Up! Regional Training. A whole day of stamping and generally being creative with other ladies - it was fantastic. I am really looking forward to telling you all about it in person, but here are some photos I've taken of some of the projects we made.

With these two projects I had some fun with watercolouring.

And this is my first ever scrapbook page! I love this butterfly. It's made using the Big Shot die-cutting machine. So pretty.

And last but not least - this is what I've been working on today! This little beauty uses the Elements of Style set and some Newsprint DSP (my new favourites!). I've also given it a "Smooch Spritz". Hard to see in the photo, you'll have to see it in person to appreciate the sparkle! 

I've really enjoyed making this one - who wants to make one with me??

Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack

Drum roll please........

Here at long last is the second of the Christmas cards we'll be making on Thursday night.

There are still a few places available so here are the details:

7.30pm, Liz's house in Wagga, Thursday 18th November

We'll make 10 cards, 5 each of 2 designs and eat supper. Cost for the evening is $20.

RSVP to Liz ASAP.

Amy's Card

I love it when friends come over to play! This morning Amy and I had some fun. We drank tea and Amy made this beautiful card for her sister-in-law.

I love the Love Letter DSP and Riding Hood Red is my favourite red! I think I might have to CASE this card Amy!

'Peace on Earth' Card

Here's the first of my promised Christmas cards. This card is a variation on one by Beth Stewart.

We'll be making this card (and another yet to come!) at my

Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack

Thursday night 18th November, 7.30pm

We'll make 10 cards (5 each of 2 designs). Cost for evening is $20.

If you'd like to find out some more details or RSVP - I'd love to hear from you!

'Forever in my heart' Card

Some friends of ours are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary today, so I have made them this card.

I have had a play with some of my new Frost White Shimmer Paint on the background and can you spot the Antique brad I used? I love them!! I also love this blue - Marina Mist, lovely!

Anyone want to make this card in a workshop?

A Card for Megan's Brother

My friend Megan's brother is turning 18 tomorrow so tonight she came over and made him a birthday card!

Isn't it fabulous? What a clever lady!

Christmas cards are coming soon.........

Mum's Birthday Card

Thanks for a great night last Thursday ladies! I had such a fun time!

Plans for a Christmas card night are well under way and I'll have some photos to share very soon.

In the meantime I have two things to share with you.

My Mum and my Grandmother have arrived to stay with us for a few days. Tomorrow is my Mum's 60th birthday and this is the card I've made for her.

I apologise for the photography - I've had to be a bit sneaky! We will have lots of fun doing things with the grandkids tomorrow and cooking a special cake and dinner. It was my Mum who first introduced me to Stampin' Up! and there is a lovely present waiting for her too.....

The other thing I wanted to share with you today was the We Stamp for Lara community. You can read all about Lara's story on Beth's blog: www.elisabethstewart.com

This month the Community is fundraising to provide a specialised chair for Lara. For a $25 donation, you can subscribe to the forum for access to 30 daily tutorials on various stamping techniques by Stampin' Up! demonstrators. I've had a look at the first few and they are fabulous! You can click on the widget to the right of the page if you'd like to join too.

If you've made it all the way to the bottom of this post you might like to put the next workshop date in your diary now!

Christmas Card Stamp-a-stack

18th November, 7.30pm

Contact me to RSVP or if you'd like any more details.

'Hello there' Card

It's taken me a few days to get a photo of these little birdies in the sunshine, but here they are!

This is the second project we'll be making together on Thursday night - if you haven't RSVPed yet it's not too late! I'm looking forward to it!

This beautiful card is Beth Stewart's design with my choice of colours. I hope you like it!

'Circle Circus' Notecard

This is the first of the projects we'll be making on Thursday night, 28th October. This design is a variation on a project from the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalogue.

We'll also be making a card in these colours - check back soon for some photos.

Keep an eye out for these little guys too - my girls think they're so cute!