Christmas table

For the first time in 25 years we are spending Christmas without our girls, the youngest is overseas and the older one is spending Christmas with her boyfriends family. So we had our Christmas dinner a few days ago. 

    This year I decided to create a center piece for the table, I had this set of candle holders in the cupboard.

The flowers were made by using the die by Sizzix called Tattered Poinsettia. I used  Distressed ink and an old crackled backgound stamp to age the flowers. The Holly leaf flourish is a Cheery Lynn design. Instead of using the tealights that came in the set I purchased battery operated tealights.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas.
Maryann

My Favourite Five Christmas cards for 2011

Choosing my top Favourite five Christmas cards this year wasn't a difficult task seeing as I only made 7 different designs. I had to keep it simple as I had busy last few months  and then had surgery two weeks ago, I have just managed to sit at the computer for a short time and have yet to be able to get any stamping done. Perhaps this week.

The oval gate fold I love this design and it only takes alittle more effort that a usual folded card for a stunning look.

This card was my first venture with sewing machine on my card.

My first use of the hero arts stamp and die sets works perfectly with Paper Pretties image

Gotta love those stampabilites bunnies

Certainly can't go pass Penny Black critters for a favoutie card.

I think cute cards were definitely the theme for 2011

I hope each and everyone of you had a wonderful Christmas

Hugs

Maryann

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's day to all, I hope you shared the day with someone you love. Today I thought I would share a card I made for a challenge a few weeks ago, but this is the first chance I have had to upload it.
This cute stamp comes from stampavie and the designer paper is from Cre8tiv purchased from Kmart.
the verse inside is from Kaiser

Supplies

Stamps: stampavie Pen08, verse Kaiser

Paper: Dp Cre8tiv romance series, white, red card

Other: red & white ribbon, felt heart, button, thread, copics, nestabilities, ds tape

TFL

Maryann

Blogoversary

Wow Today is my 2nd Blogoversary, where have those two years gone. I would like to thank everyone who has looked at my blog and those who have made a comment. I love looking at other blogs and I realise mine is very basic, but I am learning all the time. I have a goal for this year and that is to make more time for cardmaking as I noticed that the number I made last year is quite a few less than the previous year. I don't even have a card to share with you so that is not really a good start for the year, but today I received a parcel from MFT so I will play with them soon.
Take Care and thanks for looking
Maryann

QLD Flood

Happy New Year and it is not happy for some.
I have made a few cards and will post them at a later date, but I have had other things happening on around here.
The start of 2001 has been a very went one. At the start of the year most of the State of Queensland Australia has been covered in flood water. Devestating floods have been in the north, central, west and now the south east. I have been very lucky not to be caught in the flood area, but friends have and I have been helping them clean up. I thought I would share some photos of my home town with you.
Looking down the main street towards the central business district
Looking from the other side of the main street out of town

Somewhere under all that water is the bridge to the west side of town

The water has now receded and an army of volunteers from all over the country have turned up lend a hand, it has just been amazing.

Take care

Maryann

Top 5 cards

Well here goes, it seems that as this is the last day of 2010 it is time to reflect the past year of creativeness. I have managed to list my top five favourites and it was very difficult even though I only had 53 posts for the year I had to be ruthless to get to 5, 10 would have been an easier number.
I love this lotus pendant die the results are amazing

A cute little guy from Paper Pretties

I used this image twice this year one in pink and one in blue as my two nieces had babies, I love the vibrant pink ink.

These two cards made with the same Penny Black sets are just the cutest. I love water colouring these images.

Tinkerbell is a favourite no matter what age.

Enjoy your New Year celebrations and be safe.

Thanks to all you have looked at my blog throughout the 2010

Take care

Maryann

gold framed tree

The other day a watched a tutorial on Gina K designs stamp tv, it looked like so much fun, so here is my first attempt.
How to create a metallic embellishment.


The sketch I have used is from Mercy's tuesday challenge MTSC103
You can't really see it but the green designer paper has a raised felt feel to it.
Supplies:
Stamps: Stampin Up- lovely as a tree
Paper: Kaiser craft - belle collections 6x6 stack, green, Burgandy, white card
Other: gold embossing powder, versamark ink pad, starlite black ink, watercolour pencils, nestabilities oval and fancy tags.

Hugs
Maryann

T Slider sample

For club this month we had planned to make a t slider card, but it had been months since we had all gotten together that we just chatted and made a quick shopping trip to the craft store, that ran out of time so the challenge was to make one for homework. This is my sample, you can find a tutorial on splitcoast stampers, I found this very useful and watched it several times as I had some trouble converting the inch instruction to centimeters.
I made the card to match the image and had no idea on what size my slider pieces should have measured so it took a lot of fiddling to get it right. I coloured the house mouse image with watercolour crayons and layered it onto a nestabilities die cut frame. The verse was punched out with the stampin up scallop punch.

Some nice examples can been seen on Frances's blog Stampowl's studio.
Supplies:
Stamps: Housemouse, Stampin up
Paper: Kaiser paper, red and white cs
Other: Tab punch, scallop punch, nestabilities die,water colour crayons,ds tape, adirondack watermelon ink.
TFL

Maryann

Sleigh ride

Hello,
One more Christmas card to share, I have nearly finished all that I am going to make. I have a pile to post tomorrow, I hope they arrive safely the postal workers went on strike yesterday.
I made this card for Mojo Monday sketch challenge mojo108 The large snowflake was made out of while card for the base the next layer was Dp cut down finished with a small punched snowflake and brad. The snowflake in the corner was made with acetate and white card using the Martha Stewart punch.
Stamps: Penny Black christmas critters
Paper: white, red, blue card, DP
Other: MS punches, Cuttlebug Die, copics,nestabilities, brads, kindy glitz.
TFL
Maryann

Holly

Hi there,
Don't you just love this cute cat, I grew up a cat lover shhhh don't let my dog hear me say that.
I made this card for Mercy's challenge MTSC52 I am sending it to a cat lover for Christmas.
To add some extra dimension to the red strips I put them into the embossing folder.
Stamps: Penny Black clear stamps Christmas Critters
Paper:Red, white , DP
Other: cuttlebug Embossing folder Holly, flowers, brad, nestabilities label 3
TFL
Maryann

Put your skates on

Today's card is a very simple one using mojo mondays sketch 114 for the layout. I made a few Christmas cards but I really do have to put my skates on with Christmas not that far away. To save time I didn't colour the image but stamped it in coffee bean ink.
Stamps: Penny Black Christmas critters
Paper: DP Kaiser, red & green card
Other: Nestabilities; MS punch, DCWV ribbon,brads, brillance ink coffee bean.
TFL
Maryann

Xmas Candles

This is another card using the similar supplies as the one I posted yesterday, with the exception of using a different Designer paper from the pack.
Stamps: Papermania - Christmas duo candle light, MFT Sassy sayings
Paper: stampin up - DP holiday treasures, rose red, chocolate chip
Other: chocolate satin ribbon, oval & scallop punch, nestabilities
TFL
Maryann

Xmas easel

Hello,
I had so much fun making the easel card last week I thought I would make another. I used Brilliance Rocket Red Gold to tamp the candles, it has a lovely shimmer to it.
Stamps: Papermania Christmas Duo Candlelight, MFT sassy sayings
Paper: Stampin Up - DP Holiday treasures, Kiwi kiss, Rose red, white
Other: nestabilities, satin ribbon kiwi kiss/ very vanilla, oval & scallop punch
TFL
Maryann