Something a little different

In just over one weeks time we will be heading off into the sunset on a special mission! My husband Julian will be doing some relief work for an organisation called MAF - Mission Aviation Fellowship - for three weeks during December. This work involves him flying between remote Aboriginal communities in North East Arnhem Land. He will fly local people, doctors, nurses, teachers and others in this time. Ethan, Levi and myself will be accompanying him!

We lived in Arnhem Land a few years back when Ethan was a baby so we are really looking forward to returning and seeing what has changed, what is the same, catching up with people and especially seeing how the community we will stay in is going. We hear there has been quite a revival in the church there so we are looking forward to opportunities to just spend some time with them.

The island is very remote. We will travel into Gove (Nhulunbuy) on Qantas, spend a couple of days there whilst Julian does some flight checks and I do some grocery shopping and catch up with some girls. Then we will head off to the island for 2 and a half weeks. There is not a lot on the island - just a small shop and a take away. There is an art centre but I am not sure if it's operating at the moment, we'll see when we get there - it would be nice to be able to get some local artwork to bring home with us though. There is also a school, the airport (obviously) and... um... a health clinic. I think that just about covers it!

I hope to do some blogging of projects before we go... but with one week left.... and lots to organise.... I know you will all forgive me if I don't quite get there!

Blessings to you all,
Claire xo

Brayering

I find that as I spend more time practicing techniques and making cards that I am really enjoying the creative side of stamping. Something I love right now is using a brayer. The brayer is like a smooth rubber paint roller. You ink it up and apply the ink to gloss card stock to acheive a gradient look like you can see on the card here. I love my Owl together now stamp set and it was fun to use it on this little card. The cardstock colours are Not quite navy, Summer sun and Ruby red. The ink colours used for the brayering were Ruby red, More mustard and Summer sun. The branch, owl and greeting are stamped in Basic black and then coloured using Chocolate chip, More mustard and Always artichoke with the blender pens. The greeting is from the God's blessings stamp set.

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire.

Quick Christmas Card Kit

Paula and I have come up with a fun Christmas card kit so that you can get your cards made up pronto! Plus, with this kit you will have two scrapbooking pages completed before the Christmas photos have even been taken and 6 tags for your gifts! You are going to be so organised :)

Our I wish Christmas card kit includes:

• 1/2 pack of "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' Kit (2 1/2 sheets designer series paper, 4 sheets textured 12"x12" cardstock, 3 sheets of self adhesive die cuts)
• 8 sheets of Kraft A4 cardstock
• 1m Real red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon
• 1.5m Chocolate chip Taffeta ribbon
• 1m White Taffeta ribbon
• 10 Stampin' Dimensionals
• Stampin' Write Marker pen (your choice of colour)
• FREE punched shapes

The kit makes 12 Christmas cards, 6 gift tags and 2 Scrapbooking layouts (all pictured below). In your kit you will receive printed pictures of each card design for your inspiration or you can create as you wish.

All this for just $34 including postage

Why not add on some Tombow glue ($7.95), Snail adhesive ($12.95) or a Horizontal slot punch ($11.50) and we'll waive the postage charge!

Levi is 1!!

We had a little party for Levi as he turned one last week! I can't believe how fast this year has gone. *sigh*

Here is the gorgeous birthday boy enjoying a swing before his guests arrived:

This is the cake:

Levi's first taste of cake... and blue (what was I thinking?!) icing:

Our family on party day:

Thank you to all our friends who were there and your lovely presents. It was a joy to share this special occasion with you.

Flower pot card

Hi my fellow stampers!

I wanted to share this cute little card with you because it's just so, well... cute! There are lots of versions around on the web but this is my version of it using the sets and things that I own. I found the template for the pot at Andrea Walford's blog and she has her version of the card too using the Petal Pizzazz stamp set which I don't have yet. I used Eastern Blooms to stamp mine and the round scallop punch to make Old olive greenery behind the flowers. The flowers are stamped in Pink Pirouette and Rose Red. The pot is Close to cocoa and the DSP is Walk in the park from our current mini catalogue (available until end Nov). I hope you like it!

Please comment or join as a follower if you are enjoying my blog. I love to hear what you think! Happy Stamping!!

Clairey

More Christmas cards :)

I hope you are feeling festive! Because I have a couple more Christmas cards for you! These cards were part of our Christmas Stamp-a-stack which we held today. We had 14 ladies altogether and had heaps of fun and I think everyone left feeling pretty happy that they had *already* completed 12 Christmas cards!

This card is really quick and easy. Just trace a circle in pencil on the front of your Very vanilla card and then stamp the medium Old olive snowflakes around the circle. Pop the small Real red snowflakes in between and voila! You have a wreath. A touch of Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon and the card is completed. The stamp set we used here is Snow Swirled.

This one took a little longer... But basically you just stamp your Real red Christmas decorations onto Whisper white cardstock (Using the Stampamajig here for perfect placement is ESSENTIAL!). It is almost impossible to see in the photo but the middle decoration has some dazzling diamonds glitter on it. The ribbon is 1/4" Basic black grosgrain and we used the large oval and delightful Oval Scallop (Spring mini) punches for the sentiment. The stamp sets used are Tree Trimmings (Spring Mini available until end Nov 30) and Best Yet which is a level 1 hostess set.

Thanks for looking!!! Claire xo

Beautiful butterflies

I just love the Great Friend set from the Stampin' Up Spring Mini Catalogue. And there are only two more months left that it can be purchased. I thought I would have a little play with it today and came up with this card using the rock and roll method for the butterflies:

I used Certainly Celery for the card and the inks used for the butterflies are Orchid opulence with Lovely lilac, Pirouette pink with Pixie pink and Tempting turquoise with Brilliant blue. The ribbon is 1/4" Pretty in Pink Grosgrain and the oval punch is pink pirouette.

I hope this can be a little bit of inspiration for you!

Happy Stamping,

Love Claire