Paper Doll Design

It's back to reality, and back to work after a fabulous three week break! This made me go through some of the pics from the holiday - lots of eating and drinking I notice!! The Pride of America - our home for 7 days.                                                Lunch spot in Lahaina, Maui     Stopping for refreshments  Sunny day in Kona. At the Luau in Kauai. Sailing past the Napali coast as we leave Kauai.  Shame about the drizzle. When we returned to Waikiki the Christmas decorations were up around the hotel. Bye Bye Honolulu!!

Only now do I have some time to sit down and play with the new stamps sets that I got from Onstage - Stampin' Ups convention where, amongst other things,  they release and demonstrate new products. Being a demonstrator you get to go along, AND order before other demonstrators AND before anyone else has even seen the new goodies!! I was so lucky to walk away with several new sets, all different for different occasions. Tonight I played with the Picture Perfect Birthday set. I loved the bows and the two step stamping that gives them definition. Aren't they cute? I used Peekaboo Peach, Pink Flamingo and retired Mint Macaron.  Rather than use two different inks, I stamped off for the first stamp and then full strength colour for the second stamp. By piecing together some of the stamps, I made the party whistles on this next card.  I layered the sentiment on the Foil Frenzy Designer Series paper to give it a bit of WOW factor! See it in the new Occasions

Just returned from a holiday in Hawaii! I know, amazing destination! I hadn't been before, so when my cousin decided that was where she wanted to celebrate a milestone birthday, we quickly jumped at the chance. As my husband has his birthday around the same time, we thought we would head there before some of the others and celebrate his birthday there too! We had a week in Waikiki before boarding the Pride of America ship which sails around the Hawaiian islands for 7 days - not bad hey!! Our view!! Some of the family and friends joined us early and came out to dinner with us.  Special dessert for the birthday boy!!  The giant cocktail he got that we had to pass around the table to make any attempt at finishing it!! Cheers!

 I have been playing with new products that arrived from the New Occasions catalogue. Playing with these has my imagination going crazy! They are so beautiful with so many possibilities! I am taken with the mermaids from the Myths and Magic suite. The suite features Mermaids, Dragons, Wizards, Unicorn and Knights in shiny armour - everything mythical and magical! The suite has: Stamp set Framelit dies  Washi tape Glimmer paper (sparkly white, light green and turquoise) Designer Series paper - which is so beautiful it's a feature all by itself! Using this gorgeous paper, I cut out two mermaids to use as the focal point of on my card. I love how they carry the banner which is floating on the card.   Behind the cutout is a circle of glittery DSP. (The sentiment is from a new hostess set called "Yay You") The mermaids have their own glittery detail making them sparkle! This beauti

I wanted to do something special for my brothers wedding.  Something that was a present and card all in one.  He had asked for contributions toward his Hawaii honeymoon so I needed to have a little pocket to put some money in. I had done one of these box cards once before for a friends "special" birthday and she was tickled pink to receive it and still talks about it a year later. Going by the invitation, the colours of the wedding were grey and Tiffany blue/turquoise.  These are so lovely together, I knew it would look lovely regardless. Here's how it turned out! All closed up - looks like a little present! Then when the lid comes off, the sides fall away to reveal the inside. The wedding cake is the centre piece. Made from scratch! One side had a pocket so I could slip some honeymoon money in and the other had a card so I could write my message to them. If you haven't made one of these, they really are not too difficult

To attend my brothers wedding, that we have been counting down to, meant a trip to NZ to catch up with family. We got to stay with family and have several get togethers before the big day.  The wedding was a great day / night even if the weather didn't behave itself!  Don't seem to stop the smiles either! It was the first time I had been back with my family since the loss of my beautiful mother so it was nice to be back together again with something happy to bring us together.  We did still shed a few tears, knowing that she would have enjoyed every minute, seeing her baby get married and begin his life with his new wife. The speeches were funny, the company lovely and the food and music was fabulous! We really had a great time and stayed til the very end!  A sign of a great wedding!! Here's some pics of the day.