Happy School Holidays!

Hello and Happy School Holidays to some of you! Today was the first day of holidays here in Queensland and it was a beautiful start. We have a busy holiday ahead of us with plans to catch with friends at the Museum, off to see Hannah Montanna, visiting Dad at work in the city and some cooking and craft. What have you got planned for your holidays?

On to some craft. I have been busy making some cards, some craft and a bit of scrapbooking. Don't be to critical of my scrapbooking, I'm definitely not expert. The other week I went to my weekly stamping class and we did a layout using some guides and a Stampin Up scrapping kit. When I saw the colours I thought of my god daughter and her birthday and decided to make it for her

Her Mum also said she was keen to have a lockable diary and I thought I can make one of those. After visiting Mel's blog and seeing the art book that she made for her daughter Bella I thought with some alteration that I can make a chipboard cover into a lockable diary and so I did. With some pretty paper, a hole punch, some paper, eyelets and some rings I was off. My advice is to make sure that when you choose eyelets they are definitely jumbo to go through the layer of paper and chipboard also when you chose to put the eyelets in make sure they aren't too far into the cover otherwise the lock won't be able to fit around the cover and around to the other side. And to keep with the bright and happy theme I made this card for her.
It doesn't stop there, my Little Miss 5 had a birthday party to go to today so I made this card with the request by her that it had a car on it. (very cute!)

Well that's it for me today. Thank you again for stopping by and I hope to see you all again soon.

Smiles Catherinex
Materials (Card 1)

Stamps: SU Sincere Salutations, SU Cause for Celebration, SU Polka Dots

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Real Red

Ink: SU Basic Black, SU Real Red, Black Stazon

Accessories: SU Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Flower Soft, Glue, Kindy Glitz, Dimensionals, Decorative Scissors

(Card 2)

Stamps: SU By Land , SU Mixed Salutations (Unknown exact name)

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, SU Basic Gray, SU Not Quite Navy, SU Wild Wasabi

Ink: Versamark, SU Basic Gray

Accessories: Silver Brads, White Embossing Powder, Star Punch, MM Glitter Letters, Dimensionals

My First Creative Space

Today was the day for me to take the plunge and give sharing my creative space with everyone a go, I really enjoy seeing all the creativity that people are up to. What you can see is scrapbooking paper, modge podge, a zutter cutter album cover and some rings. When you add it all up it means I am eagerly making a lockable diary for my god daughter's up and coming birthday. I was told she wanted a lockable diary and rather than buy it I was inspired by Mel to create my own. She likes fun colours and I plan on covering the album, putting in some ruled paper and using a couple of jumbo eyelets for the lock. I hope she likes it.

My other pictures show the little bibs that I made for my lovely friends newborn baby. I found this great pattern over here at Chickpea Sewing. It was fun to make and the fabric was a bit of a win, finding Micheal Miller fabric for $12 a metre at my local fabric store was pretty good.

And last but not least here is what I will end up giving to the new baby and their family a decorated tin bucket with a newspaper, some little socks, two bibs and also the tag album I made earlier. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you all again soon.

Smiles Catherinex

Goodmorning!

Hello there everyone. Gee I can't believe I have finally motivated myself to post in the morning, usually I am a night time poster but today I have the finished baby presents to show you, all except one. Because my friend doesn't know what she will be having I stuck to green, orange and white getting the inspiration from some Kaiser baby paper. This is my first tag book and I have to say at first I was a bit daunted by the idea of doing it but once I got started the ideas just kept on flowing. (thank goodness all those magazines have come in handy, lol) I also kept the theme going by covering a tin bucket I found at Spotlight with some paper and ribbon, maybe it will come in handy later on and a nice way to give a gift. I plan on making a bib, putting in some little socks, the tag album and also the newspaper. I know the newspaper doesn't seem like the best gift but when the baby grows up they will know what happened in the world back when they were born. Hope you like the pictures, talk to you soon. Bye!

Smiles Catherinex

Hello there my friends! I hope that you are all having a good week so far, I am. My good friend is having her baby tomorrow which I am so excited about, I just love little babies. So I have been spending a bit of time on a little project to give to her so I am almost finished but not quite so I hope to share some lovely ideas to give as a gift for a newborn and their parents. I have no pictures to share of creating but I do have this picture of a bunch of flowers that my hubby brought home from work for me yesterday.

He is such a sweetie, and I am so lucky to have him in my life. Thank you for stopping by and I will see you again soon. Bye!

Smiles Catherinex

A bit of cooking

Hello and happy Saturday to all of you. Have you been having a good day today? Mine has been pretty good and busy helping my two girls cook. My Mum, Dad and Nan decided to come over for a visit today and I thought that making them some scones would be nice and last year I bought a Donna Hay cookbook with this great little idea to go along with scones. It doesn't have a name but here goes with the ingredients:

* mascarpone cheese

* raspberries (I used frozen raspberries)

* icing sugar

Mix all the ingredients together and place on fresh scones. As for measurements I just made up my own. The mascarpone I just used the whole tub, raspberries about 1/2 a cup and icing sugar approximately 1/3 of a cup. It tastes delicious and went well with Lemonade Scones.

Ingredients

* 3 cups of SR Flour

* 1 cup of cream

* 1 cup of lemonade

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together. When combined take out of the bowl and knead on a lightly floured surface and cut out with a cutter. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and place in a hot oven 200 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

The other day I made this card for a lady at stamping class. I bought this Martha Stewart punch when I went to the paper craft expo, isn't it pretty.

Thank you for coming to visit, I love it when you do. Bye for now.

Smiles Catherine x

Materials

Stamps: SU Sincere Salutations, SU Polka Dot

Ink: Versamark, SU So Saffron

Paper: SU Whisper White, SU So Saffron

Accessories: Martha Stewart Border Punch, Kaiser Rhinestones, Grosgrain Ribbon, SU Twine, Button, White Embossing Powder

A Pretty Card for You

My good friend celebrated her 9 year wedding anniversary yesterday (late I know ouch!) but I will be posting it today and I hope that she forgives me. I really enjoyed this card and it came together well. I got the inspiration from my kitchen of all places. In my kitchen I have some tiles in the splash back that represent the square scallops and the vertical stripes are like my vj walls. Well two posts in one day, I hope to have another card to share with you tomorrow for my weekly stamping class. Have a good night or day! Bye.
Smiles Catherine
Materials
Paper: SU Kraft, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla and Whisper White; Stamps: Sincere Salutations; Ink: SU Sahara Sand; Accessories: SU Scallop Square Punch, Various Embossing Folders, Dimensionals, Prima Flowers, SU Distresser Kit, Kaiser Half Pearls

Long Time No See!

Hello there everyone! I am still here and haven't gone anywhere, I just haven't been blogging. I really don't have any excuse but I will just say that I have a new camera which I haven't quite figured out how to use properly and so haven't had any pictures to share with you, and what would a blog post be without a picture to share! Well I have a lovely anniversary card to share but my new camera's battery needs to be recharged but I have some pictures to share with you from my Pay It Forward a few blog posts ago. The lovely Megan took up my offer to pay it forward and I made for her this cute little button holder come pin cushion which I found the instructions over here at Craft Pudding, also this tissue holder from Tutti Frutti. I really had fun making up this things for her and I wrapped them up in a bit of fabric and ribbon so she can use them for later. And while I was on a roll with making tissue holders, I made this one out of cherry fabric for myself.

I hope that you are all having a fantastic day, I have had a productive day so far doing a bit of baking. Today on the menu is Sultana Loaf Cake and some yummy shortbread biscuits which I haven't iced yet. I got the recipe over at the lovely Mel's blog, and I can't wait to try them later with a cuppa tea.

Take care and I hope to share with you my card when I get my camera in full swing again. Catch you later.

Smiles Catherinex

For a 1st Birthday

Hello everyone, how is your weekend going so far? I hope that you are all having a good weekend I have had a wonderful time. Yesterday I went to the Scrapbooking show with my Miss 9 and had a walk around and bought a couple of bits and pieces. It was really busy but we both had fun. And today I got to celebrate with family and friends my nephew's 1st birthday. They are so cute when they are little eating cake and party food, making a mess but enjoying exploring with food. He was a little surprised at all the people visiting and so was quietly enjoying his day. So today I thought I would share with you the gift bag I made and also his card. The number on his card and the gems are a bit wonky but when I attached the number brad with dimensionals it didn't work quite as well as I had hoped but it did end up looking quirky and the birthday boy won't mind. I actually stamped the image several times and cut out all the pieces to the truck and adhered them with dimensionals which made it pop out but it may be hard to see the effect in the picture. Thank you for stopping by and see you again soon.

Smiles Catherine x

My new little project.

Hello there, how have all of you been? I'm not too sure how many of you read my little blog here but hey I still love to write and share my what's going on in my life and I hope that you enjoy reading when you visit. I haven't blogged for a couple of days as my Miss 5 who I thought was on the road to recovery has now a small ear infection. The poor little thing is feeling much better now she is on antibiotics but she was in a bit of pain on Saturday night, so off to the hospital to help her get better. We also had two birthday parties to go to on the weekend, a 5 year old girl and a 6 year old girl so it was a busy party weekend but a good time was had by everyone. So on to my little project this is for my nephew who will be turning 1 year old on Friday and who will be celebrating with a party on Sunday. I thought as a gift I would buy him his first felt pens (you know those crayola animal ones), some crayons and a scrapbook, but as I was driving past this second hand shop out of the corner of my eyes I spotted this cute little table and chair set and thought it would be a perfect accompaniment to the other gifts I had already bought. So the picture I am sharing with you today is one coat of paint on the chairs and table. The colour is Country Blue by Taubmans, a nice shade of blue for him.

(Here he is 1 day old)

I have closed the chance for anyone to play in the Pay It Forward only because I have had it on my blog for a week or so and I have only one taker. I am a little sad but maybe next time, on the other hand I had a lovely surprise to give Megan which is almost finished.

Take care and I'll talk soon.

Smiles Catherinex