A Huge Challenge!

Firstly, I do have a card challenge further down in this post ... just to keep it to stamping!

But first of all ... the huge challenge ... 6mths ago I started jogging, I could hardly run a minute without feeling like I was having a heart attack, my aim was to get to 5km and lose a few extra kilos. Well, I got to 5km, lost a few kilos and then aimed for 10km - I've now run a few 10km fun runs and yesterday ran the Harbour Capital Race, aiming to beat 65min - I ran it in 64min and was thrilled with just that! We went along to the prizegiving and you can just imagine my open mouthed, dropped jaw, stunned look when they read out my number and name as the big spot prize winner!

Yep - that says LONDON ... as David said when I rang him, you mean London, as in England?!

So the challenge? Well, the London Marathon is a huge event, and not that easy to gain entry so it looks like I'm going to have to attempt it ... whether by running or walking *gulp* ... whatever the case, I'm going to London - a much dreamed about, "one day" dream :) :)

Righty ... on to the purpose of this blog! I can't believe how busy I've been since I last posted, just before I went to Australia for Convention, which seems a long long time ago! I actually have a freeish week this week, so hopefully I might even post here a few times before my nutty couple of weeks of each month starts again.

Saturday night, I felt like stamping rather than knitting or stitching which is what I usually do while sitting my tired self in front of the TV, so I printed out a few challenges - hopefully I'll work on the others during this week - and did my ask one of my girls to choose for me so I don't have to think so hard, Charlotte chose Makeesha's Challenge and the new Flower Fancy stamp set. The hardest part of this challenge was the fact I'd looked at Karen Thoma's card earlier on and I couldn't get it out of my head, but didn't want to copy it! I think it is similar ... but different as well, thank you for the inspiration Karen - I think! LOL

Ugggg I have a new camera (okay not that new, but shows how long it is since I posted anything!) and can't work out how to rotate the image - so you'll have to look sideways for now! I might try and work it out later and change it around.

Hopefully you'll see more of me this week! Stay warm and enjoy all that crafting :)

Convention Swaps?

Oh yeah, Convention ... oh yes, I'm excited, counting down the days ... and yes, I have my swap card sussed, I have some of them made, Rhiannon (my 10yo) helped me with a bit of a production line on Saturday, but I am no where near finished. So what do I do? I knit booties! LOL - one of my younger sisters is pregnant and just found out she is having a girl (she has two boys 11 and 13yo and has always wanted a girl), and she mentioned to me that I'm the only person she knows who knits so I should be knitting! ... well, doesn't take much, I haven't knitted cute little baby stuff for years ... so amongst the classes, workshops and supposedly making my convention swaps, I went and bought wool and just couldn't resist any longer.

I'm going to drop the little box on her doorstep sometime today ... I know she'll love it :)

Now, can you see the little pink buttons? (see, this IS related to convention swaps in a round-about way), I took a close up photo of them as well. That is the flower from the Always stamp set, stamped on shrinky stuff, holes punched, heated and shrunk - aren't they cute! ... I was supposed to buy some yesterday and never got near a button kind of shop. Then, as I was stamping about 60 of these flowers (okay, Rhiannon was stamping them), and thinking of the joys of cutting them all out, I thought 0h, button! and it worked! (love it when an idea works ;)).


Today ... I really have to get on to finishing those swaps ...

Cricket Thank You ... and Stefano

End of the cricket year and that means thank you cards! Our HK Rep Team has done SO well this year, 11 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw - Horowhenua-Kapiti has never been the strongest Association, we usually struggle to put one good team together, whereas the likes of Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki and others have a much bigger pool of players to choose from - it's been a great season, great group of kids, great parents :) Did I mention our Cameron is the Captain (just slightly proud Mama ;)).

Anyway - thank you cards! one of the parents got the job of taking some team photos, turns out her battery went flat and she got only one photo - eeekk! But it was the best photo - really captures their personalities. I went and got three printed and made cards out of them for the boys to sign and give to the Manager, Coach and Scorer. The Just Cricket set is probaby one not used a whole lot, but perfect for what I needed.

I used kraft card, folded a whole A4 in half, stamps red caps and versamarked the bat and ball over one whole side, folded that in half and centred the backed photo on top (that way it can be folded back and put in an album later on. Then stamped Thank You on the inside in red, and versamarked the caps, ball and bats again - so the boys could write over the top. Stamped out the cap, bats and ball on white and cut them out and added them to the front corner - actually a very simple card, but effective!




While David took the family to the cricket prizegiving and end of season BBQ, I met up with my sisters for a 10km run ... and look who we saw while we were there! My younger sisters are wayyy braver than me, they were quite happy to go on up to him and ask for a photo, we all had quite a nice chat too ... apparently Barbara is the one we should vote for ;)

(BTW, I had one other sister there too - she went off to her car to change and missed the photo op - she was gutted! LOL).

Right, off to tidy and prepare for a class tonight :)

Mojo Monday #81

Slipping in just before the next Monday's challenge is up, once again! This is another one I did on Saturday afternoon, and another stamp set I got just as the Summer Mini was finishing ... and more old paper as I wait for my new stuff!

I've used my pens for the stamping, rather than inkpads, so I could use the two colours on two of the images ... I love how our stamp sets all co-ordinate so nicely!

Another day, another holiday :) ... I'm FINALLY sorting out my retired stuff today - I can hear some "about time" sighs out there ... so those people I've promised a preview list before our catalogue launch this weekend ... yes, I'm finally doing it and I'll have the list to you later!

Kwernerdesign Colour Inspiration #49

Love these colours! ... and I think I'd love the fabric too ;)



I got out my uninked Eastern Blooms for this, I got these at the end of the Summer Catalogue, I spent the whole three months after making myself choose just one flower set from the mini wishing I'd got this one too, so finally decided to just do it ... and then was doubly pleased that it made it into the new 2009/2010 Idea Catalogue.

Anyway - I had the hardest time making this card, this is nothing like I envisaged to start with! I've had the idea for the vase for quite a while ... and am hanging out for my new eyelet punch to try it with. As you can see from my old papers - I'm still waiting for my April 1st order *sniff sniff* it'll be Tuesday before it arrives now!

It's been a lovely long weekend so far - my husband's job this weekend is to rebuild our back fence that got blown over nearly a year ago by a mini twister that went through our yard, he spent Friday doing the hard work, putting posts in, concreting them etc - tomorrow he and a friend will nail the pailings up - it'll be nice to have an enclosed backyard again!

I ran the lovely Waikanae River track, down one side and up the other, on Friday (and then felt less guilty about eating lots of chocolate! LOL) and Charlotte and I made homemade hot-cross buns. Yesterday I had fun playing with my stamps - I've been doing a couple of challenges and just generally mucking around. Today we've been watching Mr 13yo play soccer in the annual local Easter Tournament, it's been a lovely sunny weekend for it! Tomorrow I need to get serious and tidy the house and get some classes ready.

I hope you're all having a great long weekend as well :)

Kwernerdesign Challenge #48

I picked out an old favourite that I just don't use enough for this - Pick a Petal ... this was my "must have" from the last catalogue, and I'm pleased its made it back into the new one ... maybe I'll use it more this year!

I made this pretty quickly yesterday afternoon, I loved the colour combination and wanted to give it ago ... but had a workshop to pack up and get ready too! The rest of the day before the afternoon rush was spent with my two girls shopping and lunching - we had a lovely day :) The primary school had a teachers only day, the boys were still at school (at High School) ... so we decided to take advantage of the extra day and have a girls day out. The two girls now have boots and warmer clothes that fit them and are set up for the colder weather ... plus a few beads/crafty stuff that somehow found its way home from Spotlight, not sure how that happens - must be something genetic! LOL

Anyway, back to the card ... the paper is from the new pack "Good Morning Sunshine" which as demos we were lucky enough to be able to pre-order, I must admit to not liking it in the small photo we got ... but the real thing is SO much yummier, now I love it :) ... the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Righty, I think this is my last "freeish" day for a while, I need to spend it folding pamphletts and helping Rhiannon deliver them as DH is away on a work conference for a few days, so I get that lovely job this week. Then I really do need to start working on my Convention swaps!

Have a lovely day :)

An old Makeesha Inspiration (#5) Challenge

Yep ... really behind! I think I did actually make this before the challenge ended, but then never got time to upload it onto my blog!


I used just about all retiring product for this one - I really liked the way it came out, very different from anything I usually do :)

I have a huge list written down of things to do, I'm hoping to actually cross off a few this morning! I wrote it down yesterday to try and organise myself and then didn't cross anything off, I hate that. However I did finally get a new printer ... just in time for important history assignments and such, but sheesh it takes a long time to install those things! (or maybe I just need a newer, faster, computer as well!).

Enjoy your Friday (one of my favourite days of the week!) ... and have a great weekend - mine involves running and cricket ... guess what one I'm doing and what one I'm watching? ... six months ago it would have been a definite NO! for both ...

Keryn's Colour Challenge No.13

Keryn's Colour Challenges have been some that have been on my list to do for a while, I love all the challenges out there, and love how popular the overseas ones are - but sometimes its nice to support the local gals :)

Challenge No. 13 was Rose Red, Cameo Coral and Garden Green plus a neutral. I had to dig out some Garden Green, its one of those colours I just don't seem to use - not sure why, its not that I don't like it - I just never seem to have a need to use it!

The I've used two stamp sets from the set "Echoes of Kindness" a Level 2 set that will be available in the new catalogue - tomorrow! I water coloured the main image and then water spritzed the flower behind the words.

I'm hoping today is a MUCH better day than yesterday - I went to meet my friend for a walk, she wasn't there because she was sick, and I'd forgotten to check my phone before I left so missed her text. That was fine, I knew I was going to be biking/delivering for a few hours ... but that turned out to be an hour when I managed to come off my bike and completely mangle my basket in the process (not to mention the lovely scrapes and bruises on me) ... so I came home instead.

Sooooo basket is fixed, last of my deliveries of the month to do which will take a few hours along with yesterdays ... roll on tomorrow when I start my "quiet" couple of weeks ;)

Mojo Monday Week 79

Nothing like the last minute! I made this up yesterday, not sure if I quite got the funky look I wanted ... but I'm loving the funky paper and new in-colours!

Very short and sweet sorry, just a quick upload before I go and pick up the kids from school :)

You know you are busy when ...

You have an exciting box of pre-order SU! goodies that sit there for nearly two weeks before you have time to do anything with them!

I finally got time to sit at my craft table last night for a couple of hours ... I had to tidy it off first, it was a disaster area, so I cleaned it off, put things back where they should be and got my NEW stuff out and put that away ... ahhhhhhh ... better than ... well, better than the work and running around I've been doing the last couple of weeks for sure!

The KWerner Design challenge was perfect colours for the "Good Friends" set that is a new one in the new 2009/2010 Ideas Catalogue ... it didn't really come together as easily or as well as I'd like, but its a fun image, and fun colours.



Hopefully I'll have time later to have another play with a couple of other challenges I'd like to catch up on, I also have a "almost two weeks late" Mykeesha challenge to upload onto my blog!

I'm expecting a quieter week this week - so hopefully it won't take another two weeks to update here again :)

Mojo Monday Week 77 - a week late :)

I actually had this finished yesterday, ready to upload before the week ended, but as usual the day just ran away from me and before I knew it I was in bed sleeping soundly!

I picked out this paper from my box of scraps - it is actually SU! paper from last year's catalogue, I liked the butterflies and colours, and worked from there. Once again it came together pretty easily - I love the Mojo Monday sketches that are so precise in their sketch - if you're really clever (and some people really are!) you can add, or alter and make it so much "more" but for a simple, I'm really tired, I'll follow the sketch and put it together ... it makes it much easier having a clear starting point.

I used the butterfly and swirls from my Priceless set which WILL be in the next catalogue, and seems to be my most used right now :)

Kwernerdesign Colour Inspiration #45

Did this pretty quickly tonight - and it's photographed tonight, so not the best photo either! I've used the ever handy, ever faithful Embrace Life set, again :) The flowers looked extremely stark just white, so I watercoloured them a wee bit with the grey, still wasn't happy, so then sponged them a bit - that seemed to do the trick, also added glitter, which you can't really see too well on the photo.

Sorry, short and sweet - busy (and early start) day tomorrow, so I need to get to bed and try and catch up on some sleep!

Mojo Monday # 76

Two posts in one day! Be sure to look down for my Kwerner Design Challenge - it's one of my more favourites I've made :)

I used another Summer Catalogue set for this one (Live Your Dream) - one I'm really hoping will make the new big catalogue ... I've spied some lovely pink coloured matching paper in the US and UK catalogues, so I'm keeping fingers crossed for both :) BUT you can never be too sure, so if you really really want this one - be sure to order it before the end of the month, just to be sure you don't miss out!

Gosh this card had a lot of layers - I noticed it had fallen over when I came home for work last night - I'm sure because it was so front heavy! LOL

I used the matching Afternoon Tea paper for the paper, stamped the flowers with Soft Sky and then used my Chocolate Chip marker to colour in the centres. For the bow at the top I used my useful little double slot punch and punched it just under the ribbon wrapped around the card and used a separate piece of ribbon to tie the bow by threading it through the double holes that I'd punched out.

Yay to Friday today, I love Fridays :) It's the only day I'm not exercising at the moment so I get to sleep in an extra half hour, I start work at 3.00pm (earlier than the other two days) and take my time getting into the city, stop for a quiet lunch, stop and have a nosy at Spotlight and enjoy the downtime ... and then its the weekend! Hope you all have a good one :)

Kwerner Design Colour Inspiration #44

Love, love these colours ... in fact I've ordered a few packs of Berry Bliss this week because I'd nearly run out and it's only available for the rest of this month!



This came together surprisingly easily - as I said above, I only had a couple of pieces of Berry Bliss left, being a couple of the sheet I've used (the white with brown dots and pink stars), I find with most of my packs of paper there are one or two sheets I don't use and always have left over .. this was one of them - but why I ask? The paper worked so well - I saw the stars and thought perfect opportunity to use the In the Stars stamp set from the Summer Catalogue - with all the hype of the retiring list, don't forget these are still available this month, and might never be seen again!

Pretty self explanatory - I've used Berry Bliss paper, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip card, I've stamped the two stars in Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa, punched one out and cut the other and then stuck to them to contrasting card and cut around them again. Chocolate Chip wide grograin ribbon, and pink taffeta ribbon and then the stars stuck on with dimensionals. I also had the Mojo Monday sketch in front of me and liked the greeting with dots either side, so used that concept on this card as well.

... next post is Mojo Monday :)

KWernerDesigns - Colour Inspiration #43 + Retirement List

I'm back! I did say I had a busy couple of weeks coming up - and yep, they were busy :) - busy including doing the Kapiti Womens Duathalon (biking/running) on Sunday, yay me! Back to quiet (ish) for the next couple though - so time to create, yay! First up was just managing to slip in the latest K Werner Colour Inspiration in - I was so pleased to see the deadline was Monday in the US so I had time to quickly put something together yesterday afternoon.

I've used one of my favourite sets that is retiring - Looks Like Spring. I actually stamped out four flowers with the idea of a having them over the whole card, but I just couldn't get it look right, I'm still not totally happy - but one definitely looked better than four.


... and the Retirement List - yes, it is out - my customers should have got an emailed newsletter from me last night with more explanation - if you didn't receive it, or want to know more - contact me and I will help you through it :)

Check back tomorrow - I'm hoping to do the Mojo Monday challenge with a set I'm hoping makes the new catalogue!

Homework Books

Ahhhh ... it's homework time again! Year 5 and 6 at our school have to have a hard covered book to put in their homework sheets and written homework - Rhiannon was Year 5 last year and so, nice Mother that I am, I covered her book with special paper ... sucker that I am, I had to do it this year as well! Charlotte came home the other day very excited as at Year 3, she gets a "real" homework sheet each week this year (I hope she is just as excited for the rest of her homework years) ... so of course, she had to have a special book as well. I finally did them this past weekend - they picked the papers, Charlotte is a "blue" girl, Rhiannon went for a more elegant "older" look.

Rhiannon's I used the now retired Holiday Harmony set (still one of my favourites), I've gold embossed the swirls on hers and added Artichoke butterflies.

Charlotte picked out the only blue she could find - from the Bali Breeze set. For her's I added pink swirls and pink/blue butterflies.

I'm not sure that the butterflies will last long, anything raised that is pulled in and out of a box of books at school doesn't hold much hope really, if they come off I'll replace them and stick them flat and re modge podge the top :)

SCS Scrapbook Sketch Challenge #176

Like the cardmaking, sometimes a sketch just helps those creative juices kick off. I'm trying to scrap some of our older photos, and these sketches are perfect for putting pages together.

I have to say, gosh, it is nostoligic looking through our older photos, and quite sad - time goes by so fast, it doesn't seem so long ago that our boys were little, that was such a big time of our lives that has just disappeared *sniff sniff*

This was the annual Kids Christmas Party that my work used to put on, so many of these kids still have parents that work there (I still work there!), and they're all grown up/teenagers now :) It's also funny looking at the date on the photo, 19 November 1999 - exactly two years before our surprise no.5 baby was born, its funny to think there we were with our four kids with no idea that two years later on that day we'd have another one!

Anyway, onto the actual scrapbooking - I've used Dashing DSP and based all the colours from the paper (makes easy scrapbooking!). I've used the Big Deal Alphabet and added glitter to the top of it. Then used the star punch to punch out the stars for the "SHOW" (and cuttlebugged those letters), and then glittered the smaller stamped out stars for a bit of bling in the middle. Josh who is being the Magician's Assistant tells me that all he remembers is the rope - nothing else! LOL

Kwerner Colour Inspiration #41

I'm a bit late with this one - but, hey I did it!

This came together surprisingly fast! I used my favourite heart (one of my few hearts, I'm drooling over "A Happy Heart" in the Summer Mini though, not one that really caught my attention straight away, but as happens ... now I MUST have LOL). Anyway, I used the Heart from the Always set that was available in the Spring Mini - one set I'm really hoping will make it into the new big catalogue, definitely one of my favourite sets. I'm also looking forward to having the Riding Hood Red - I like the Real Red ... but I have a feeling Riding Hood Red is going to become one of my fast favourites :)

Onto the card ... I white embossed the heart image onto the red card and cut that out, stuck it onto the black card and cut it out again (actually I stuck it onto the grey and cut it, didn't like it and THEN stuck it onto the black). I stamped the Basic Grey card with one of the small flowers from the set with Basic Grey ink. I ran the black card through my cuttlebug to get the embossed image (I made two cards the same, one piece of black cuttlebugged card was enough for the two cards). Stuck the black onto the red, wrapped the Red grograin ribbon around, stuck all of that onto the grey and then the heart on top with dimensional dots, I then used rub-ons for the greeting - quite a basic, but effective, card :)

Now, the funny story. Josh (14yo) had his girlfriend here yesterday when I finished the two cards, so I called him out (of his bedroom that I'm continuously walking past and pushing the door open, or just happening to have to go in every now and again to ask something!) and gave him the card to give to Emma (cuz much to my disgust he hadn't done anything for Valentines ;)), so he gave it to her, and she handed it back and said well, you have to write in it too! LOL ... he's a romantic boy that one ...

I think reality really is going to set in this week ... it is the start of the two weeks/month I spend helping Dad with his delivering (he has a contract to deliver all the local power bills and I'm doing more and more of them as he slowly admits he IS getting older), my workshops/classes are taking off again for the year ... so it will be a busy week and I'm thinking the start of the usual years busyiness that always seems to happen no matter how I start every year saying THIS is the year we slow down a bit! Oh well, its busy, but I really enjoy everything I do so that is just the way it is, I plan to enjoy the ride :)

Always Time for You

There are two of my favourite things from the summer catalogue used on this card - the bike from "Time for You" and the Scallop Edge Punch - these are available through until the end of March, so not much time left if you are wanting them!

Very simple card - the sketch is cased from the US Catalogue, nice and simple :) I water coloured the Bike image and added a wee bit of Dazzling Diamonds to add sparkle to the flowers. I've used some of the Fall Flowers DSP from my scrap box (can you tell I've been trying to work through some of those scraps lately?) and gone with the lovely two toned blue look of Soft Sky and Blue Bayou together, I love the look of the two blues and haven't used the combination nearly enough ... especially as these will only be available until end of March which is creeping up fast!

Scrapbook Page - 1st School Photo

First scrapbook page I've done in a while! This is the cute little Rhiannon's first school photo - she's grown up so much since then! There is a mixture of Stampin' Up products and other bits and pieces on this one. I had the hardest time getting a title right so ended up with more journaling and less title. I'm hoping to get a little more scrapbooking done over the next year - trying to make more time for my crafting - we will see how that goes, I'm sure I say that every year!

Mojo Monday - Week 73

Before I start Mojo'ing ... I have been shocked and saddened, as we all have I am sure, of the horrible bush fires and the trauma of them over in Victoria, Australia. Very good friends of my in-laws have lost everything - they had five minutes warning which wasn't enough time to grab all the special things we imagine we'll have time to take, they just had to get out - thankfully, unhurt - but it is hard to imagine the horror of being in that situation (as an aside, these friends were made when they were billeted with my husband's family to recover after surviving the Wahine Disaster, two disasters in one lifetime is definitely two too many).

There is a "Card Drive" happening - if you feel like helping in some little way, make a card that will be sent to victims so they know they are being thought of - I've just searched and searched for a direct email/address you can send these to and can't find one! But the NZSU Blog has an email address if you want to find out more details.

Right, onto Mojo Monday :)
I really enjoyed putting this one together, as soon as I saw the strip I knew I'd be using my double stitched Rose Red ribbon, so the rest of the card came together around that. I pulled out my Rose Red papers, and chose the poka dots image and then went to my colour wheel to find a complimentary colour to go with the Rose Red - it gave me Garden Green - a colour I very rarely use (I think because I just love the Old Olive and continuously use that) ... so Garden Green is what I went with - along with some white to go with the white stitches in the ribbon.

I fiddled for a while to get the scallops just right - and really they are "close to" just right ;) ... but I did manage to get a reasonable rectangle with my new favourite tool, the scallop edge punch. I actually put all the square etc together before deciding what stamp set I was going to use. Once I had all that together, the Priceless set just seemed the right one, so that is what I used! I've added a wee bit of Dazzling Diamonds to the butterflies and put one of the lovely silver brads from the Silver Hodge Podge set to hold down the ribbon. I've white embossed the "So Kind" words. And just for once, I love how this card came together and turned out!

US Catalogue CASE for Blair

Okay, yesterday was Melanie's card ... today we have Blair's!


This is another CASE from the American Catalogue, had to change the colours slightly, as they had used the new in-colours, and I didn't have quite the same stamps ... but basically it was the same ... and worked well for a masculine card (although my delightful children tell me - after I'd made the card - that the Turquoise Blue is a girly blue, thanks darlings!).

I've used Tempting Turquoise for the base, a snowflake from the small snowflake set for the background stamp and Big Bold Birthday for the other images. Whisper White for the main images and So Saffron for backing the white. This was a nice straight forward one to make - but quite effective.

US Catalogue CASE for Melanie

CASE = Copy and Share Everything



The new US catalogue has just come out, and not only is it full of goodies, but like ours, its full of great samples as well! I'm not sure whether its a sign of the times or just my style (I'm not sure I have a style quite honestly, but right now I am liking simple, clear lines) - but I went through the catalogue and founds lots and lots that I wanted to copy/try doing similar and Friday afternoon I had some time and cards that needed to be made to try a couple of them.



First up is Birthday card for Melanie, my niece who is turning 25yo in August, her partner was 25yo a week or so ago though, so they had a combined party :) (as an aside, how did I become old enough to have a 25yo niece??? having said that, my youngest brother just turned 28yo - so he must be wondering that even more! LOL).



Anyway, on to the card - the sample in the catalogue had a cute little vase and flowers, which we don't have so I used the flower from Embrace Life and just slightly water coloured it with Pale Plum. The main card is Sahara Sand, Confetti White for the flowers and other white accents, Chocolate Chip card and ink and Sage Shadow to back the image. I used my Happy Everything for the greeting ... not quite right, but the best I had!

Check back tomorrow for Blair's card :)

NZSU Sites February Challenge

The lovely Trudi set us a challenge to try a Cami Fold Card ... I loved doing this one, and can see me doing more! I actually made three all the same, with two little girlie girls, we seem to need lots of girlie girl birthday cards! I used the last bits and pieces from the Crew Girls Simply Scrapping Kit (gosh, these kits really just go and go ... I've used half for a scrapbooking book, and the other half has been used for classes, and for other bits and pieces!) - I had one piece of the Regal Rose card left and one of the Wild Wasabi, so the pink was perfect to cut into three pieces and make three of the cards with. I had a last bit of paper left - just enough to cut out the squares for the fronts of the cards, and then used some of the last of the stickers to do some final decorating on them. I didn't add ribbon as per the instructions, I was being scroogy and knowing that the cards are on their way to birthday parties, I decided not to waste it (don't tell the darling little girls that though!).

I've put links to the NZSU blog and to the instructions on how to make the card below the photos.

NZ Stampin' Up Blog - Click here
Instructions for "Cami Fold Card" - Click here

Kwernerdesign Colour Inspiration #40

Ahhhhhh what a nice afternoon I had yesterday, very productive! This was the first card I made (and I actually made two of it), using Kristina's colour challenge. I asked Rhiannon to pick a stamp set out for me (sometimes, it's just all too hard to think of colours AND what stamp set to use!), and I was really pleased when she picked out Friendly Flowers, I love this set and just haven't used it enough - partly I think because it is such a big image. But, something else I've wanted to do is make a couple of cards to fit in the envelopes I've got left over from the Carousel Notes I've used for other creations ... so, perfect!

I hunted through my scraps of DSP and found a couple to match, and admit I also cut into a couple of whole pieces just for those small strips, well, just because the colour was right and I had to ;) I white embossed the first image of the flower onto Olive Green, and also the More Mustard last one. The middle one I have stamped Taken with Teal onto white and cut out. I think the rest is self-explanatory. I quite like the finished result - quite different, but a lot of fun to put together!


I also made Birthday cards for my niece and her partner, they are having a combined 25th birthday party today, so I needed a couple of cards for that - but while I was in such a productive mood, I also made doubles of those so I have a couple to put away for future birthdays. Check back over the next few days and I'll have those cards up, I love this being able to set entries to show up later! Tomorrow I have the NZSU Challenge Card ready to appear, and I'll set up the other two birthday cards to show after that ... it makes me look like I'm actually keeping up to date with my blog for a change!

I need to go make some yummy chocolate eclairs to take with me later ... have to make double, the rest of family don't want to drive all the way to Wanganui (and secretly, I'm quite pleased, I don't mind going on my own) to my niece's party, so I will leave them with some eclairs to sweeten them up, and take a batch with me :)

Mojo Monday #72

Hmmmm as usual, i'm not sure I'm totally pleased with this, I couldn't get the Riverrock stamped part to look just right ... I think I suffer from always trying to finish things quickly before heading off somewhere else! I loved the sketch though, completely different and more busy than what I usually make, I like that these challenges push me out of my comfort zone :)

I used the Embrace Life set, and the Ginger Blossom papers ... again. these are definitely my two favourites at the moment! I also dug into my Pretties kit, I really do have to make myself use all those lovely goodies, I'm terrible at "saving" them ... it's not like I can't order more when I run out!

It's a holiday here in New Zealand, and one of the few to fall on one of the days I work (I work Wed, Thurs and Fri so I miss out on the Monday public holidays), so I plan to enjoy it by sitting at my craft table - the latest Kwernerdesign Color Inspiration is printed off and ready to go :) ... and I might just persuade my lovely children that the TV can be on the Rugby 7's and Cricket while I'm there (watch out for the strange dressed up animals ... one of them will be my nutty son!).

Hope everyone else is enjoying their day off :)