Happy Valentine's Day!

Just thought I'd pop in and say Happy Valentine's Day whether you celebrate it or not. 

And I'm usually a "not".

Go figure. 

It's been fun. 

Have a great day!

Valentine garland in our dining room, but there's a problem!

I don't like it! 

Okay, not true. 

I like it, but I don't love it. 

I think it's the doilies across the top...

Oh, rats, I hate when that happens! 

I have an idea in my head and it doesn't turn out...rats. 

Triple rats. 

I do like bits and pieces of it, don't get me wrong. 

I just don't like it as a whole... 

These are cute. 

They were in the Valentine's Day box that I did for PC. 

Eight hearts folded and glued together plus tulle. 

(Tulle from Spotlight - it was something something a metre. $7.99? $4.99? Not sure, bought it a while ago)

All the string is baker's twine. 

Of course. 

Made these pom poms out of tissue paper (the two pinks) and paper doilies (white) after seeing this video from the Spellbinders booth at the recent CHA. The pom pom bit starts at 3:22. 

They're pretty easy and fun. I've made similar with paper, which are nice too. 

The dark pink pom pom on the right there has 4 pom poms joined together like the orange one in the video. It's pretty full. The others just have two, back to back. 

I didn't use Spellbinders either, I used Sizzix dies - the Bigz Scallop circle ones. You just use what you have, hey?

The hanging hearts are from a Sizzix die with three hearts on it that I got on Monday at Photo Continental. I love that the dies nest and they're slightly tapered at the bottom too, which is nice. 

The other big heart is a Bigz one too - Clear Heart.

 It made huge lollypops! I did eight layers like the others, but because it's so big, maybe some extra layers would've been good.

I did do them in pom pom form though. The jury's still out on those. They got hung up, so lucky them.

It's all trial and error. 

I love the steel rule dies though, they can cut so much stuff. If nothing else they're good for cutting 4 layers of card at a time. Maybe more. It's a real bonus sometimes.

Die-cutting is just so fab. 

Oh man, I just don't like it. 

It's not working.

Will I leave it?

Or will I go and rip the doilies off and see if I'm right?

 They're the problem, I'm sure of it! 

Okay, that's it! 

I'm ripping them off! 

Hi there

Just a few random things I wanted to mention today. The ladies and I were talking about these things in the Christmas class on Saturday, so I thought I'd mention them here too.

Firstly, Kristina Werner is doing 25 days of videos starting on Monday (in the US) - Tuesday to us. Check 'em out, they'll be good!

Secondly, red baker's twine is swiftly becoming a staple in my crafting kitchen. Particularly in this crafting kitchen's Christmas section. That basically means I'm using it a lot right now. I bought mine on Etsy. Click here to start shopping (I did a search for red baker's twine and this is what came up). Shop around - there's lot of different prices for the twine and shipping prices too. You can buy a little, or a lot, it's up to you. Ten bucks (including shipping) will get you a nice little stash.

Thirdly, the ATG (Advanced Tape Glider).

I love this thing.

Saves so much time - really, so much. It's great.

Scrapbookers have been using these for years.

You know those big tape guns for picture framing? That's what they were using and they weren't cheap. About $90 AUD and $50 USD (round about).

Scotch has now made a light duty version for scrapbookers (as opposed to the heavy duty one for framers) and the good thing is the colour - pink over red/black - and the price. I got mine for $26.99 USD. Amazing.

I got it from here - Paper Made Bakery. Shannon is really friendly and really looked after me. Go see her! Don't forget to order some refills too. She also has mini glue dots - sometimes they (the mini ones) can be hard to find. 

Her site wasn't set up for international orders when I purchased, but I emailed her for a shipping price and I paid through paypal. Easy. You can pay by paypal (using your credit card) even if you don't have a paypal account.

Trust me, you'll love your ATG.

Fourthly, I threatened to do this and now I've done it out of sheer necessity. I moved all the Tupperware/plastic containers to the spare bed to sort 'em out. First reason, it all wasn't fitting in the drawers and was annoying me. Second reason, you cannot tell me we need all this! Third reason, how many of these suckers are without their lids?

As you can see above, I was halfway through sorting lids to containers when I took the photo. I've done more since and there seems to be containers without lids and lids without containers. I'm sure you know the deal.

And the biggest surprise of all for me? I left only a very skeletal amount of containers in the drawers back in the kitchen thinking full well I'd be walking back and forth to get what I needed over the next few days. Well, I didn't even walk down there once in the next week. Okay, once, I think I went once. And secondly, I've been down there about three times in a month. Proves my theory - I have way too much of this stuff and it's gotta go.

Recognise some of them? Some are from my grandma (ie. the 60s), some are from my mum (ie. the 70s), some I bought in the 90s. Betcha you've got some too! 

Okay, that's all for today, bye for now!

:o)

Mother's Day cards...

Hey, how's it going?

Today I thought you might like to see the rest of the Mother's Day cards. What fun these were to make. Totally cool and I had some of the desk time that I love (and need).

I seem to be making a lot of big cards lately and these are big too. They're A5 and I made my own envelopes to match (in yellow).

This first one's for my mum.

Incidentally, I made these together. You know, chose the papers for both, then chose the bits for each of them at the same time. Punched out the borders, punched out the labels.

Much easier than making a full one then going back and make another whole card, even if it's the same type. Yes?

As I said earlier in the week, the papers are from October Afternoon - their Thift Shop line.

It's old-worldy and vintage and perfect for those lady embellishments from GCD Studios. They're the chipboard shapes from their Homespun Chic Collection by Melody Ross.

(You can see the pack of shapes here)

Here's the sneaky peek one of the cards.

Nope, my mum doesn't wear those shoes while cooking.

The two border punches I used are both new EK Success Slim Edger punches - the top is a paper ribbon one called Zig Zig Chain and the other is called Open Scallop.

These rock.

Seriously.

I'd like a smaller ric rac one and a smaller donut chain one now. They don't exist, but I wish they did.

Ah, this is EK too.

It's called Journal Plate and Bracket (it comes with two brackets).

I drew the gold edging on it, just to outline it a bit.

The tiny type stickers are from My Little Shoebox. Tiny type stickers are a favourite too. So many uses and a lot of companies are doing them now.

The bakers twine is Martha Stewart. Not surprised? Exactly - she rocks it.

Speaking of Martha - this edger punch is hers too. It's called Embroidered Floral and I love it.

Now, mind you, it wasn't love at first sight, but it grew on me and now I love it. There's a second reason why - I'll tell you about that another time soon.

It has a corner punch to match it as an option too. Would make nice doilies, don't you think? I really must try the whole punch-around-the-page thing one day.

Honestly, doilies used to be so out, but now they're so in. Anything that reminds me of my grandmothers is a winner for me, so doilies are always in, regardless of their trend status.

Don't you love the trends? In, out, in, out. I use whatever I want, when I want - what about you? Hey, love the trendy stuff, but it doesn't have to be trendy for me to use it. Plus, who can keep up with it all, everything changes so fast...know what I mean?

Oh, hello border punches.

You used to be so out too. Lol. But someone made some nice ones and all of a sudden, ka-bam, border punch explosion!

A final word - it took me ages to figure out what to put on the signs.

Happy Mother's Day? Too obvious.

For you? I do that all the time.

Love you? Too mushy (we wrote that inside!)

Finally (in amongst doing other things and then coming back to it) I thought, "What are they saying? Well, ta-da!" So, I put that.

Both mums liked 'em.

Good!