Merry Christmas, Mum!

Hello!

Today I made my Mum a Christmas card. She is leaving on Monday night to go and spend Christmas in London with my brother, his partner, and their new baby boy (Mum's first grandson). I'm very envious! I'd love to be spending Christmas in London meeting my new nephew, too! (Oh and with my brother and my sister-in-law.) I decided to make a card that would match the wrapping paper, mostly because the paper was in colours my Mum likes, and secondly, I really love that paper! :-)

I will admit that I am amazed that I managed to replicate the wrapping paper so closely, LOL! First I created the flourish background using PTI Embellishments in Soft Stone, then I silver embossed the SU! Christmas Deer (I love this deer as much as I love Dasher, and that's a lot!). I stamped the sentiment to ground the deer, and then finished off with a few stars from PTI Christmas Friends. The card base is Soft Stone, and the mat is Night of Navy. Colours are Soft Stone, Hawaiian Shores, SU! Pool Party, Coastal Cabana (swiping it across my card yesterday has had a positive effect in drying it out a bit), Night of Navy, Pool Party.

My Mum is rarely impressed with my cards, but she did like this one. She spent quite some time looking it over and comparing it to the wrapping of her present. It made me happy that she likes it so much. I hope it travels with her.

My eldest daughter just realised this afternoon that this will be the first Christmas that she hasn't been with her Grandma. She is very sad. This afternoon she asked Grandma to take her along, but that would bring the problem of not being with us! We'll have to make good use of Skype.

My youngest daughter today danced in her final ballet concert for the year. She did a wonderful job of dancing, remembering all of her steps without referring to the "helpers" at the side of stage. She told me afterwards that "it was a long time to remember all the moves!" She's 6. She loves ballet.

Thank you for coming to visit me!

Michelle
xxx

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop

Hello!

I had all sorts of wonderful ideas for the PTI Blog Hop this month, and then the 25th snuck up on me completely! There were three hours left when I realised, and I was helping my kids make birthday cards for their Dad, so I managed only one set of tags. They are simple, but the kids love them, and I think they're pretty cute, too! ;-)

I used PTI Christmas Friends and Peace, Love, Joy stamp sets.

I discovered it is a bit tricky photographing sets in a rush!

Now I'm heading back into the fray of sibling warfare... wish me luck!

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Runway Inspired #26

Hello!

Oh, how I love Summer holidays! I'm at home, the kids are happy and relaxed, and I get to do some card-making!  Unfortunately, I'm on the countdown to my return to work on Monday. :-(

This morning I sat down to contemplate Runway Inspired Challenge #26. This is what I came up with.

I used PTI Start Prints and Christmas Friends (flourish). Card is PTI Basic White, SU! Night of Navy and Old Olive. The star, sentiment, and flourish are embossed in silver (making this a tricky card to photograph).

This was the inspiration. Such an elegant dress!

 

Thanks for coming by to visit me!

Michelle
xxx

Dynamic Duos #27

Hello!

I was inspired by Maureen Merritt's card this week, and decided to CASE her for the Dynamic Duos Challenge #27. I used to put up the photos of the inspiration cards on my post so that you could compare directly, but I found people were pinning these from my blog, and I would rather that people's beautiful work is pinned from their own blogs and accredited correctly. So take a little journey across to Maureen's blog to take a look, and if you haven't visited her before, have a big look around, it's worth it!

This is my card.

I used Mama Elephant Basic Borders, PTI Stylish Sentiments: Holiday, PTI Christmas Friends. Colours are SU! Garden Green and Real Red. Oh, and the sentiment die is SU! Holiday Keepsakes.

The colour inspiration was this.

Thanks for coming by. I hope to be back with some more cards over the next few days.

Michelle
xxx

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop - Part 1

Hello!

It's Blog Hop time over at Papertrey Ink! I have made two cards using two different colour combinations. The first is this one.

I used PTI Christmas Friends and Think Big Favorites #20. Colours are PTI Berry Sorbet, Melon Berry, Fresh Snow, SU! Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Memento London Fog.

Inspiration came from:

I probably wouldn't have used this colour combination for Christmas cards if left to my own devices, but I quite like the feel of this pastel card. :-)

Michelle
xxx

Pink & Grey Christmas

Hello!

It's been a while, I've been a little busy... making halloween costumes, the usual kiddy activities, music concerts and exams, housework...

Today I'm bringing you a quick little Christmas card that I whipped up yesterday just before transforming myself into a witch (dark purple eye shadow sure is difficult to budge when you're finished with it, LOL).

The colour combination I've chosen is from Just Add Ink Colour Challenge #91.

The layout is from Clean & Simple FTL#164

And my card is this one:

The stamp sets are PTI Snowflake Serenade and Christmas Friends. I heat embossed the bauble and the string. I also added some SU! Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The snowflakes were stamped in Versamark. I love grey snowflakes.

Before I go, I'll show you one of the costumes I created for yesterday's party. I have chopped my little girl's head off in the photo because I don't put my family photos in this blog, for their privacy (a real pity, because she looked SO cute). Her hair was yellow with ribbons made from the same material as the skirt all over her head.  She was Oscar the Grouch, and she loved her costume. The skirt can now be used by my eldest daughter, because the straps and Oscar's face were all just pinned on for the evening. My big girl is thrilled because this skirt is VERY twirly and floaty.

I hope you liked the card, and enjoyed the peek at my costume. :-)

Michelle
xxx