April 4, 2010
Easter Wishes!!
Happy Easter everyone!
The Easter Bunny visited us this morning, leaving sweet treats for the children down amongst the gum trees in our back block… what a lot of fun it was watching the children racing from tree to tree to see if there were any tiny eggs hidden in the undergrowth.
Hunting for Easter Eggs
Earlier, we had a lovely lunch of Roast Lamb and yummy veggies (oohh I think I ate too much!!!) and we’re all ‘relaxing’ in our various ways – the children are outside playing, Shane’s in his shed and I’ve taken a quiet moment to upload some Easter cards…
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up!
Oh noooooo, now that it’s uploaded, I see that the photo quality isn’t as good as I thought – sorry ’bout that! *DOH!*
This card uses Wagon Full of Fun from the Summer mini (now retired), and the Bold Brights inks and cardstock – Real Red, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise and Yoyo Yellow. Don’t you just love the glitter on the eggs? I’ve also embossed the top layers of cardstock with Polka Dots in the Big Shot.
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up!
This is such a cute duck. I’ve gone for a very clean and simple look here. Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow and Whisper White. I’ve coloured both the ducky and the eggs in the previous card with my Blender Pens and the ink pads.
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up!
I thought I’d use the Loads of Love accessories set and put a little pile of Easter Eggs on the window sill of the Window Dressing Hostess set. Cute.
GAH – the quality of the photos is awful! I’ll see if I can get better shots and edit this later for you.
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up!
Again, I’ve kept the design very simple and the colour scheme is minimal. If you can just make it out, I’ve embossed the Whisper White cardstock with Polka Dots. If you like the bow on the top right hand side, I learnt how to make it by following Teneale Williams’ instructions. You’ll have to check out her blog for her Tutorial on how she makes her perfect bows. Stunning!!
I hope you had a wonderful Easter Sunday and that the Easter Bunny brought you a little something too. Yum.
Julia. XX
April 3, 2010
Razzleberry Birdie!
This card has an interesting history…….
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up!
I made it for some friends to let them know that I was thinking of them, however, I soon learnt that the reason for which I’d felt the need to make them a “thinking of you” card was not as dire as everyone had at first thought. (YAY!!!)
Now I had a dilema…. my friends had received good news (after worrying news), and therefore it wasn’t REALLY necessary to send them this card…. but I’d made it with them especially in mind, and it was soooo pretty and I knew that the recipients would appreciate the card – well, one in particular LOL!
Should I send it?
Tee Hee – I still sent it, but luckily I hadn’t written in it yet so I could thank them for creating an opportunity for me to make them a card – although I reckon they went a bit over the top just to get a card from me – they could have just asked!!!!! *snort*
I love the simplicity of this card. Clean and crisp. I’ve sponged the edges of the Orchid Oppulence cardstock to make it look softer and the stamped saying is from the Sale-A-Bration set Whimsical Words.
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Oppulence and Old Olive.
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Oppulence (sponging).
Other: Sizzix Big Shot, Top Note die, Extra Large Two Step Bird punch, Clear Rhinestones, Mat Pack, Stampin’ Sponges.
Please feel free to comment!
Julia xx
March 25, 2010
Happy Birthday, dear Friend!
A very BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! to my friend, Maria!!!!
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2010
I love celebrating other people’s birthdays… especially if I know that the Birthday Girl will appreciate a hand-made gift because I can make a gift that “gives twice!”
Here’s the gift I made for Maria:
Design by Julia. Stamped Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2010
It’s a Stampin’ Up! 5 X 5 On Board Art Journal that I’ve covered with Bella Rose Designer Series Paper and then decorated with a combination of stamps: Baroque Motifs, Vintage Vogue (Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue, available from 1st April), and Friends 24-7, and cardstock: Chocolate Chip. Close to Cocoa and Very Vanilla. The inks that I’ve used are, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard and Close to Cocoa. I’ve also sponged around the edges to soften the cardstock.
The reason these gifts “Give Twice” is that I get immense joy from making them, and then (hopefully), Maria will get some joy in using them. 
See, it makes two people happy! *smiles*.
It’s also the first time that I’ve attempted to decorate a candle. I wheeled the Jumbo Wheel, Friendly Words in Riding Hood Red ink onto white tissue paper and trimmed it down to wrap around the candle comfortably. I held the stamped tissue paper on the candle and used my Heat Tool to gently melt the surface of the wax. As the wax melts, the tissue paper will blend into the candle and (hopefully) hide all evidence of the tissue paper. Fun.
I hope you enjoy your special Day, Maria!!! Your friendship has been a blessing in my life and I’m thrilled to have been able to share the laughs and happy moments of the past year with you, and hopefully many more to come. *hugs*
May 4, 2009
Happy 8th Birthday, Laura!
Our darling daughter turns 8 today!! Wow – where has the time gone? She was born 6 weeks premature and ever since, she’s been taking us by surprise, LOL! However, we took her by surprise this time!!
We bought Laura a new bike for her birthday and Shane hid it in the shed until Sunday. We decided to give it to her her early so that she could spend Sunday riding it rather than getting it today after school and not being able to have much time riding. Tee hee….. Shane set it up in the shed and I made a massive red bow out of tissue paper and stuck it to the handle-bars. We planned a secret code phrase: “Would you like a cup of tea?” so that when I came out into the front garden (where they were all doing some playing and fencing – well, Shane was fencing LOL!), and asked him if he’d like a cup of tea, it meant that I was going to hide in the shed with my camera and wait for them to come down. I positioned myself behind the bike to capture Laura’s face as she opened the door and saw her bike…… so sneaky!! It was great! Laura had no idea and when she saw it she was so surprised – so funny! She got all teary and gave us all big hugs and said she couldn’t believe it. Bless her. Ronan got her small bike and Shane put the training wheels back on so he could ride around – he was over the moon and didn’t even care that it was purple!! He’s going to help dad re-spray it in whatever colours he wants. So Sunday was spent with the children riding around the front doing skids and testing out their ‘new’ bikes. Sweet.
Card by Julia, Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
When she opened her card this morning she uttered a long, high-pitched “Ooooooooohhhhh!!!!” (I was suitable happy with said response and obviously did ‘okay’ with choosing the stamp set and design *sigh of relief*)
The set I used for this card is Animal Crackers and I chose pinks and purples in bright shades because Laura LOVES purples and I thought a nice bright card would be perfect for her 8th!
Stamp sets: Animal Crackers, Outlined for Fun
Cardstock: Orchid Oppulence,Pink Passion, Yoyo Yellow, Watercolor paper, Pixie Pink and Lavendar Lace for small stars.
Inks: StazOn, Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac, Gable Green and Yoyo Yellow for watercolouring
Accessories: 2 way glue pen, Dazzling Diamond Glitter, Lareg and small star punches, Aqua Painter, wooden number ’8′ from own stock.
Card by Julia, Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
And the inside…
By Julia. Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
Stamped using All in the Family, Family Favourites and Family Phrases with the Stamp-a-ma-jig (AWESOME TOOL!!!) To get the bunch of balloons, I free-hand stamped my first balloon onto the cardstock in the position I wanted, then stamped the balloon onto a Post-It note. I carefully cut around the balloon right on the line, and positioned it on top of my first image. I could then stamp more balloons over-lapping the first, knowing that the Post-It note would protect the first image from being stamped over. I removed the Post-It note and re-positioned it for more balloons and then did the other side. I’ve used Stampin’ Up! watercolor pencils to colour the picture and added Glitter for that extra sparkle!
I think we survived the Birthday weekend quite well – Laura had one friend sleep-over on Friday night, where we all watched High School Musical 3 (borrowed from her friend). I loved it! *laughs* Such a shame that Laura would LOVE to see it again and I just HAVE to buy the DVD so we have our own copy. *cough-nothing-to-do-with-Zac-Effron-at-all!!cough* Good, clean, safe fun! And great songs too *blush*. ANYWAY!!! And then on Saturday we had 3 other friends join in for Pizza lunch, a movie and a bite of cake – a perfect number of girls and nice & simple.
Saturday night we went out to Ju and her husbands’ joint birthday celebrations and had a lovely time! Ju had decorated their house and garden with candles and fairy lights and it was simply beautiful!!! The food was delicious and we had great company with Kelly and her husband and the other guests.
Here is the awesome Invite that Ju sent us:
CArd by Julie Pollit. Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
Ju, you make beautiful invites!! (I’ve told you that already, but HA! I get to do it all over again!)
May 1, 2009
Birthday Bling!
Love you, mum!
Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
Images © Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
January 21, 2009
Congratulations Kelly!
This is the card that I made for my dear friend (and now one of my Team), Kelly.
Congratulations Kelly on your recent Promotion in Stampin’ Up! Well done!!
This isn’t a totally original idea of mine – I did see something similar on the net which gave me the inspiration to make this card. The card used the stamps from Bold Butterfly rather than the Jumbo ‘Flitting By’ Wheel. ( I don’t have the ”Bold Butterfly” set.)
I added my own twist on it by wheeling “Flitting By” diagonally across the A4 Cardstock, then re-inking the wheel in Not Quite Navy and again in Bashful Blue, rolling it on Whisper White C/S and cutting out the butterflies I wanted to adhere with dimensionals on top of the card. I also used the small butterfly from Live Your Dream (with VersaMark) to add a subtle feature to the card. The one I saw on the net – and I can’t for the life of me remember who it was made by – was a lot brighter, whereas I wanted to stay with the simple colour combo of blue and white. I just adore how crisp and fresh this card feels. The glitter on the swirls adds the perfect amount of bling, without overpowering it.
Hope you liked it, Kelly! ( I couldn’t post this here, until after I’d given it to her!) You’re an awesome friend and we have a lot of laughs together – I’m blessed to have you in my life and look forward to all the fun things we’ll do in the future. *hugs*.
Enjoy, and Congrats lovey!
