Lead up to Christmas and New Year

Hi again - it is Saturday morning - New Year's Eve 2011 and I am thinking about entering more challenges.  I had three lovely comments on my first challenge entry - it was really exciting to get those responses.  I certainly didn't expect it.

Amelia (Milly), my daughter keeps me up to date with what goes on in the card world.  Without her influence I would not be doing all the stuff that I am doing now.

Both my daughters have been scrapbooking for a long time and I probably only got started in the last twelve months.  My eldest daughter Elizabeth is a consultant with Kaszazz as well as holding down a full time job as a Mum to two beautiful boys and expecting another bundle of joy in March and is a Registered Conveyancer.

I resisted getting into scrapbooking for quite a while, but I finally got hooked.  Oh dear!   How quick did I fall under that spell.  I would hate to think of the money I have spent, but it does keep me busy and gives me something to do in my spare time.  And everyone loves a home made card - it is very special because it is made with that person in mind.

There was a new challenge that I was going to enter using black and white but I ran out of time and didn't enter the challenge.  I had already decided that I was going to do some black and white cards this year and had some Magnolia stamps already painted up with Distress Reinkers but haven't had time to put my cards together.  Oh well! It will be an early start for next Christmas.

I did, however, make some lovely, unique cards which I gave to friends and family.  The first one to my children's Godparents was a card that I entered in my first competition.  Here are some photos of that card:

  

I used Kaisercraft Christmas - December 25th 6-1/2" Paper Pad for the backgrounds and the "Big Shot" with Nestibilities die for the scallop background cut out in red and then placed the spotted paper behind Edwin.   Magnolia Merry Little Christmas Collection - Lightning Edwin was painted in sepia tones using Distress Reinkers. I used a large and small snowflake punch and used Distress Inks Frayed Burlap and sponged the colour on to the flakes and then added diamond stickles to give the sparkle and shine.

For my eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband Darren and her two boys, James and William I used the Something for You Tilda stamp from the Magnolia Sweet Christmas Dreams collection.  I used Fired Brick from the Distress Reinkers with Black Soot for the shadows.  For the fur I used Liquid Applique which puffs up to look like fur when you apply a heat gun.  Very fun to play with. I also again used  the Kaisercraft Christmas - December 25th papers and cut outs.

It was interesting when I was putting this card together the layout looked much better with the plaque horizontal rather than portrait.  Snowflakes and the plaque were sponged with Frayed Burlap and then embellished with diamond stickles and pearls.

The next card for my son Ben and his wife Jo was also made with the Kaisercraft Christmas - December 25th papers and I used the Magnolia Merry Little Christmas Collection - Reindeer Tilda painted in sepia tones using Distress Reinkers.  The bench Tilda is sitting on is a Bildmarlana bench which has been painted with the same tones as Tilda using the Distress Reinkers.  Very little was done with this card apart from the "25" token which was enhanced with diamond stickles and the plaque with "Merry Christmas" which was made using a Kaszazz stamp.  The border around the background was white so I sponged it with Frayed Burlap to mute the background.

The background paper I used was the BoBunny Back to Basics/Father Christmas.

For my youngest daughter Amelia (Milly/Milszy - http://milszy.blogspot.com/) I used a different colour theme to the other cards and I was really pleased with the results.  It was very simple, but so effective.  I used the Magnolia Merry Little Christmas Collection - Starlight Tilda and used Distress Reinkers to colour the image.  For the clothing, star and wings I used Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap for the wand of the star. 

The background was "Winter Wonderland" paper from Best Creations Inc and the doily was die cut from white card and sponged with Weathered Wood.  The cut out was done using a die from Kaszazz and also sponged with Weathered Wood and then I used diamantes to embellish the background.

Here are some images for you to look at:

Well I have been working on this blog on and off all day.   It has been an extremely hot day in Adelaide, South Australia today - it was forecast to be 38 degrees Celsius and tomorrow (New Year's Day) is forecast at 41 degrees Celsius.  I haven't ventured outside much today.  Went shopping early and did some washing, but had that in before the shade went from the clothes line.

I am now sitting watching the Edinburgh Tattoo and the year will be over in a few hours.

Let's hope 2012 is going to bring some good things to the family as this year has ended rather sadly.

We were going to go to our friends who live in Mount Barker for New Years celebrations, but I have had a tummy bug all day and because it was so hot have decided to spend it at home.  Milly was really sick with gastro earlier this week and Denis wasn't well later in the week, so looks like I caught something from him.  Sharing/caring - lucky me!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!