Notebooks

Because I was out of time before Christmas to get all my planned activities completed, I have decided that my Christmas gifts for my team at work will be "Seasons Greetings" gifts in the new year.  The thought and heart were there, but I just didn't get the time before I went on holidays to complete the project I planned instead of Christmas cards. 


For each member of my team, I have created the front inside cover of a notebook.  I will write a personal message on the back of this cover for each person, and they will then have my greetings as well as a notebook which will (hopefully) be more useful than a Christmas card, and might even last all year.


Here they are:

They are all different.  I have a particular favourite, but I won't tell you, so that you can choose your own!


I hope you like them, and I hope my team likes them too.  :-)

Here are the larger photos of each.

Christmas

This year the majority of my cards were made at technique classes and at stamp-a-stack sessions with my stamping friends.  This means that the designs were mostly by my friend Manda.  BUT, I did have an idea in mind when Dasher was released, and I worked on it for a while before I came up with my final design.  My idea was blended with an idea I got from one of Manda's cards.  Manda's card is here:

I loved this card, and I did give it away to someone special at Christmas, despite wanting to keep it for myself!  What I came up with for Dasher (the reindeer) this year started as:

and ended up as:

The big thing I learned from making this card was - the more bows you make, the easier they are.  So the next time I'm planning to make bows, I will make them in bulk, because bows are one of my personal challenges (along with cutting out).

I didn't get all my cards out this year, but I live in hope that one year I will make all the cards and send them in time as well!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year!

Michelle
xxxxx

Little Boy Birthday

This is a post I meant to make before Christmas, but time slipped away from me.  So now I have a couple of posts to catch up on!

This little card was another of my playing with my alphabet.  It was for one of my little girl's favourite friends.  I almost didn't get a photo of it, and this one was taken on the dashboard of my car before we went into the party!  I really love the way the monkey hangs from the balloon, and I can see myself using this idea again. 

Everything is Stampin' Up other than the alphabet. 
DSP:  Washington Apple
Colours: Barely banana, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Ruby Red

Boy Birthdays

I haven't had a second to do any stamping lately, and Christmas is looming!  But, I had a couple of birthdays to make cards for this week-end, so out came my gear.  Recently I picked up a simple alphabet from Kikki-K and I played with that for these cards.

The first was a 3rd birthday for one of my little girl's friends - the party was yesterday and I put the card together in about 30 minutes just before we had to go, phew!  My little girl watched me make it and when it was finished she declared, "Oh, that's beautiful, Mummy!"  That put a smile on my face.  :-)  

Colours are (all SU) Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, and Sage Shadow. 

The second is a birthday card for my brother (who I don't think reads my blog, but if he does, "the card's in the mail").  This card emerged from an idea I had in my head that I had trouble translating to paper.  Although not what I originally imagined when designing the card, and due to the challenge of translating my concept to paper, I ended up with something different to my usual style, and I quite like it. 

I can't get the picture to translate in a normal format (it is squishing it up), but you get the idea, I'm sure!

Colours used are (all SU) Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie.

Sometime soon I will be blogging with some Christmas cards again.  Until then, I hope you've enjoyed my latest attempts at creativity.

Another Birthday

This week it was my other half's birthday.  Fortuitously, last week I received a little gift from my friend at my stamping workshop.  This little gift was fully used in creating hubby's birthday card, and I have been inspired with a few more stamping ideas during the creation process.

So what did I receive?  I was given some ribbon in "Elegant Eggplant" (dark purple - the hubby's favourite colour), a stamping spot in the same colour (a mini stamp pad), and a lovely heart stamp - I'm not sure what set it is from, but I LOVE it!

My challenge was that I don't have any cardstock in the same colour and no papers that include the same colour, so I had to put my thinking cap on to design something that worked well with my new colour ribbon and ink.

The result is here

I used Perfect Plum cardstock and I added some purple embellishments to give it a little extra oomph. The top section is popped up, which is a bit difficult to see in this picture.

I love it, the hubby loves it, what do you think?

Sunday card making

I had a couple of cards to make today.  One birthday card, again using Pony Party (I'm getting my money's worth out of this set!).  This might be my favourite pony to date.  I love the Almost Amethyst colour and Pixie Pink complements it beautifully.  Card stock is Almost Amethyst and Pretty In Pink.

We also have a little friend going to have her tonsils out tomorrow, so we wanted to send her a "Get Well" card.  I thought a vase of flowers would do the job nicely.  I used Good Friend for the flowers and stems and a 1 3/4" circle punch for the vase. 

Our thoughts are with you, sweetheart. xxx



Now I'd better go and make some dinner!  :-)

Notebooks

About a year ago, I bought a pile of A5 notebooks with the grand intention of making them into gifts at Christmas.  Well, Christmas came and went, and those notebooks were still sitting at the bottom of my wardrobe, waiting patiently for my interest and motivation to return.  After a good twelve months of procrastination, I have set to work on creating something with them.  I have three designs so far, and I'm really enjoying them. I have more in mind, and I hope to work on them over the next few weeks.


First was using Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set, which I love, it's very elegant.

Next, I used another set which I liked the moment I saw it, Artistic Etchings.  Not my usual style, but I like it anyway *smile*.  The background stamp is En Francais (French words) and it is a lovely element and I thought it was appropriate to use with the Eiffel Tower.

The third one I created today using Good Friend.  I borrowed this set because I have wanted to play with it for the longest time.  I'll be making another notebook cover using this set but with a very different result sometime soon.  I like this design, it's fun.

These are my notebooks so far, I hope you like them.  I'll show you some more soon!