Christmas Day

I would like to share some photos of our Christmas day in Melbourne on a beautiful day. The trees in our street were dressed with pretty red ribbons. My neighbour down the road started doing this one year and he did his side of the street. I followed the trend and did the same on our side of the road, so now the two blocks of our street is covered with ribboned trees during Christmas every year!

Our table settings were all red themed. I saw on Pinterest last year, a nail polish gift with 'For Your Mistle Toes' and have wanted to do it ever since! So the females all got OPI nail polish and the males had 'Reindeer Noses' on their place settings. My son helped me die cut all the 40 Poinsettia flowers needed for the table of 20. I assembled them with crochet flowers made with Gold Shimmer twine and a brad.

Tiger, our cat even got into the festive mood. Although he was not too happy with all the visitors in the house!

A sample of what we had on our table on Christmas Day...

My photographer brother took a photo of all the Hsieh cousins in the same spot that another photo was taken 7 years ago!

We had a great dinner with both mine and Robin's families. We had a few minor mishaps (The Turkey Incident and a napkin caught on fire from the candles on the table) but everything turned out well in the end. The best part about Christmas dinner is the leftovers the next day or two! Hope everyone had a great day and would love to hear about your day!

Merry Christmas

It's been so strange this year, for the first time I am really organised. It is Christmas Eve and the table for 20 is set for tomorrow night. Dessert is made, cookies done, presents all under the tree, turkey stuffed (with help from a live-in Chef) and I even had time to make a very quick card. This card is for my Mum as I wanted to make her one with a religious message. I'm entering this card into Ellen Hutson's Hero Arts Clear Stamps challenge and also CASual Friday's 10 minute card (Dashing thru' the holidays). This card is one layer and so easy to make. The cardstock was sponged with 4 shades of distress inks. The stamps were stamped in black and then sprayed with Perfect Pearls. Sorry about the poor quality of photo -was been taken at night and my Nikon has finally been expired!
Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the Festive season. I'll be back briefly tomorrow to show my table settings for tomorrow night!

Here's another shot taken the next morning! You can see the shimmer from the Perfect Pearls!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White 280gsm and 318 gsm
Stamps - Hero Arts CL559 Greatest Gift
Inks - Tim Holtz Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Tea Dye and Gathered Twigs, Ranger Archival Jet Black
Others - Ranger Perfect Pearls, Kaisercraft gem, Silver paint marker

Christmastravaganza at ABNH

I was so excited when I received an email from Linda and Mary Dawn from 'A Blog Named Hero' to participate in the Christmastravangaza. This is my first guest post on another blog and the list of participants included some of my favourite artists - such an honour! Please click on this link to see my blog on ABNH. There is a prize giveaway as well on each post up until the 24th of December.

Here's a sneak peak of what I made, details are on the ABNH blog.

All that Shimmer!

I've been so busy with Christmas preparations this week that I am crafting for just what I need for Christmas (cards, tags, placecards). I love the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger - Shimmer and Shine and I just have to make something! The trigger photo inspired me to make jewel encrusted baubles. I've also used the CAS(E) sketch for this card. Thanks for dropping by. Come back again tomorrow for my post on A Blog Named Hero's Christmastravaganza.

Ingredients:

Card - Gold metallic card, Neenah solar white, pearl metallic card

Stamp - Hero Arts Happy Holidays CL633

Ink - Versamark

Die - MFT DieNamics Ornaments

Others - Twine from The Twinery, Kaisercraft pearls and rhinestones, brads, Ranger stickles, silver embossing powder

Washi Goodness

I have a slight addiction to washi tape, just can't get enough of it! Last month, I submitted these two cards to the Paperpoint MT Washi tape contest and guess what? I won $100 worth of washi tape! 

I would like to share a card I made for a magazine submission that was rejected. The good news is that the other card got accepted! Yay! The flowers in this card was made with decorative tape from MME - I love the effect of diecuts on washi tape! I'm submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp's What's Your Favourite challenge - Washi Tapes and Dies of course! 

Please visit A Blog Named Hero - Christmastravaganza as I am making a guest appearance on 17th December, there are prize giveaways everyday until 24th December!

Ingredients:
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White
Paper - My Mind's Eye Indie Chic Saffron
Die - MFT DieNamics Layered Labels, Fishtail flags STAX, Upsy Daisy
Stamp - Hero Arts CL530
Ink - HA Soft Granite
Others - MME Decorative Tape, Hemp. Kaisercraft brads

Glad Tidings

I've been really busy this week with work and now I'm feeling the pressure of Christmas upon me. A bit of distraction with card making eases the pressure! I have a card for this week's Retro Sketch challenge, Simon Says Stamp Snowflakes challenge and Simply Less is More's Red/Green challenge.

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Via Vellum Kraft

Paper - Kaisercraft 25th December

Stamp - Simon Says Stamp Gnome for the Holidays

Ink - Hero Arts Cup O'Joe, Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs

Die - MFT Let it Snowflake

Others - White gel pen, American Crafts Brad

Mr and Mrs

I had an order from my niece for a wedding she is attending. She saw my previous card made with the PTI Lovely Layers stamp set and wanted something similar. Funny, I always challenge myself to make something unique each time! I decided to use the same patterned papers but the layout is different. I gave it to her yesterday and she loved it! I didn't make this card for any particular challenge, but there is still time to put it into the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge. Thanks for dropping by!

Ingredients:

Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

Paper - Pink Paislee London Market

Stamps - PTI Lovely Layers, SSS Festive Holiday stamp set

Ink - HA Soft Granite, Field Greens

Dies - PTI Lovely Layers, MFT DieNamics Fishtail Flags STAX

Others - Kaisercraft Pearl brad, Hemp, Silver gel pen