Eat Chocolate #2

Here is another card I made for a swap. This one was for a team training swap for the new mini catalogue.

This one also uses the eat chocolate stamp set and the tasteful trim die for the Big Shot - which I think is fantastic. It makes a full 12"strip that you can use for scrapbook pages or cut up and use on two card fronts. Here is a close up of the stamped panel. To get the shaded bit on the top and bottom I have simply punched the label out again on brown cardstock, cut it in half and adhered it to the top and bottom.

It has been raining here in Sydney since we came back from NZ and I am sick of it. It is cold, wet and miserable. On a brighter note though, the kids went back at school today so at least I finally have some peace and quiet. Hopefully I can do some creating ... I have to make my swap cards for convention, which is in less than 2 weeks!.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Eat Chocolate

I'm not sure what happened to the scheduling of the posts while I was away, but apparently they didn't go through, so I will do the first one manually now.

First though I will update you on our holiday to New Zealand. The kids and I had the best time. The weather was cool and crisp but not as cold as I had anticipated, which was great. I managed to read three books while there and let Nana and Grandad do breakfast so I got to sleep in a little every day. I ate everything I can't get here - bluff oysters, green onion potato chips and yummy cheese rolls. I have come home feeling very relaxed and more than a little homesick.

Now for my post I had scheduled. This card is one I made for a team swap for the new mini catalogue. It uses the fabulous Eat Chocolate stamp set which I knew I had to have as soon as I saw it - as I am a chocoholic.

For the colour scheme I went to the Cadbury colours of espresso, concord crush and white. I used the inlaid embossing technique on the background. It is such a cool technique and adds heaps of texture to the card with little effort. The sentiment was punched out with the new label punch, which I punched twice to make it a little smaller.

I was really pleased with how it turned out - just like I had imagined in my head - which to be quite honest, doesn't happen too often.

I have another Eat Chocolate card to share with you next time.

Keep on creating.

xx Nicky

Happy Birthday Jess

I can hardly believe it, but today was Jess' 7th birthday - my how time flies. Carrying on with the bear theme from her party last week, I made her a bear card. Unfortunately I couldn't find the bear stamp I wanted to use - heck I'm not even sure whether I own it or was just dreaming I owned it - so I used the same bear that I used on her invitations. I made an easel card in purple and white (to match the Hannah Montana bear she got at her party). Here is the front of the card: I covered the bear in dazzling diamonds and it looks amazing in real life (but I can't seem to get a good picture of it). Anyway here is a close up of the bear:And finally a picture of the card opened up.Jess really loved it. We have had a very busy day with the last day of school, the easter hat parade and her birthday. Tomorrow we have to be at the airport at 5.15am to fly to NZ to see my parents for the holidays, which we are all really looking forward to. I will be checking emails while I am gone and have done a couple of posts to pop up next week and the week after. I am still having problems with getting paragraphs in my posts (they show up on the post but get lost in the preview and when I publish the post), if anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Hope you all have a great weekend and I will be back to regular blogging on my return. Keep on creating. xx Nicky

Jess' birthday invitations

Wah-hoo I am back - and feeling so much better than the other day, the extreme tiredness seems to have disappeared and I am left with a lingering cough. As promised, I have Jess' birthday goodies to share with you. Having a Build-A-Bear party obviously meant that the invitation had to have a bear on it, so I used the first rubber stamp I ever brought (over 10 years ago) - who knew that this one stamp would create a monster! Jess chose the colour scheme of brown and orange and after looking through my dsp stash I decided to use the retired sweet always papers. I used my favourite new technique on the background. Cutting strips of cardstock, placing them on card and then running them through the big shot with the square lattice embossing folder. I just love the interest and texture it gives to a card ... here is a close up:

I also made goodie bags with the fancy favour big shot die in matching colours.

Here they are side by side, I was extremely happy with the result, what do you think? Finally, a picture of the birthday girl with her brand new Hannah Montana bear, aptly named "Miley".

Have a great day. Keep on creating. xx Nicky

Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue is here ...

It has been a very busy week at our house and I have been ill for the past 10 days. I hope I get better soon as I am tired of being exhausted! I have done no creating at all and was supposed to participate in the INKlings blog hop on Friday, but on Thursday evening I had to realise my limitations (well my tiredness) and pull out. On a much brighter note, the new autumn-winter mini catalogue is here ... and it has some fantastic new products in it. I have added a link to my side-bar so if you would like to download it, just click over there. If you are like me and would like to have one in your hand to look at, mark everything you want to purchase and generally make it all dog-eared and tatty, drop me an email and I will put one in the post to you. Jess is turning 7 next week and we had a party for her today over at Build-A-Bear. It was a blast and all the kids had so much fun. I will be back on Monday to share her birthday invitations and party bags, along with a gorgeous photo of the birthday girl. I hope the rest of your weekend is fun and relaxing. Keep on creating. xx Nicky (PS the formatting for this post has gone funny and I can't seem to fix it - hopefully it will be better on Monday xxN)