Punny Pals Blog Hop

Welcome to our Punny Pals Blog Hop.  Did you arrive here from my clever friend Doreen's Blog? We have an extra hop this month because it is Operation Smile Month and Punny Pals (D1751) is our Operation Smile stamp. It retails at $27 with the profits going to benefit Operation Smile.  It is as cute as can be and so versatile for making all sorts of cards and pages.  Consider using any of these critters with the santa hat from the Beary Christmas Scrapbooking stamp to make your Christmas cards unique (see my little bear card in the Beary Christmas Blog Hop).  I will personally use the dog and rabbit on pages for my pets and I have used the cat stamp to make a birthday card for a cat-loving friend.  This stamp makes you feel good every time you use it - because just by purchasing it you have helped to give a child a smile!
How good is that!

For these first two cards I have paired the Punny Pals with some Falling For You paper scraps and the "Stronger Together" Sentiments (C1716)

 This one was just using a spare Cricut cut tag and the Sentiments from our "Birthday Sparkles" stamp (B1537)

 And this one used a piece of scrap card (embossed with our chevron folder) and a cricut cut tag with a "Stronger Together" sentiment

Remember how I said I would use the bunny and the dog on pages? I couldn't resist cutting a "Bunny Love" title with our alphabet thin cuts.  These thin cuts are quite possibly my favourite thing from our Annual catalogue.  They use tiny scraps of paper to make letters whatever colour or size you want!  These make a great host reward (get them for half price!)  I plan to do a "Puppy Love" title at a later date for photos of my son with our labrador.

Well that is it from me this month.
To continue the hop just head over to Maz's Blog and don't forget to join us on the 1st of November for our SOM hop.
Happy Scrapping,
Nell
xx

This is still my blog..

You know I happened to notice, as I prepped for yet another Blog Hop tonight, that this blog has definitely taken a CTMH turn of late.  That is okay, in fact I know it makes quite a lot of people quite happy, but I wanted you to know that this is still my crafty, knitty, chatty, tell about my kids and my life and my messy, messy house place.  I will be back with these kind of posts very soon I promise.  Just as soon as I can get all of this stinking technology to work easily for me.  Right photos on the right devices etc etc.

We have just come back from a glorious 4 days on the Eyre Peninsula.  SO GOOD. I was a grumpy pants and didn't want to go because it felt like there was a gazillion things I could be doing at home (linen cupboard clean out anyone? Any takers for scrubbing the bathroom grout?) and like it would waste (?!?!) a whole week of holidays.  Of course Prince James was right (he usually is although I try not to tell him so too often) and what I actually needed was a whole week just chilling and walking aimlessly on a beach picking up mother of pearl.  We caught fish and I cleaned them and gutted them and filleted them like I have been doing it all my life (funny the things you know how to do but don't do often) and then we ate them freshly pan-fried in salt and pepper and flour and butter and they were so good. So unfishy.  We ate fish and chips on the beach and fed the leftovers to the seagulls. We watched the sun set.  I did a lot of thinking about how I want to carve out moments, even whole days, to recapture that sense of nowhere to be and nothing to do as we plummet pellmell into a crazy term 4.  I knitted A LOT, and I handwrote some cards (which is something I never do but really like to do) and I did so much daydreaming and thinking of projects.  A lot of the photos of Port Lincoln ended up on Instagram.  When I can get them off my phone I will try to add them here.

Anyhow, it is late and I digress.  Just wanted to let you know that I am aware of the lack of knitterly/bakerly/crafterly photos and posts and will remedy it sometime soon!
Spring has totally Sprung here - blossom everywhere and my roses are all budding beautifully.  I did a bit of a front step makeover - love to sit on this chair for  a quick cuppa and listen to the birdsong.  Happy, Happy Spring!
Keep smiling,
Nell

Beary Christmas Australasian Blog Hop

Oh I love this one! Welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop for the first of our two Christmas ranges, "Beary Christmas".  Did you arrive here from Shaunna's Blog? I hope you are enjoying the hop. Just continue the blog hop by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

 As a self confessed teddy bear lover I really, really like this paper collection.  The stamp set is adorable - a reindeer, the sweetest little bear and a cute Christmas fox.
I love the feature paper of poinsettias on one side (very traditional Christmas) and that dopey little bear on the other!


Now, I think this is the perfect pack to make quick easy Christmas cards so that is what I will be using the PML pieces for, BUT, this pack also has some paper that works with non Christmas subjects! For the title page for my daughter's 2017 album I have paired the beautiful glacier ombre paper with some Bashful and Pixie cardstock and some glitter trim.  I used our shimmer brush to give the stars and the "Happy" from the Beary Christmas complements pack a quick sparkle and then finished off with some silver glitter dots also from the Beary Christmas range.  Not a bear or anything Christmas in sight!

Then it was onto some easy Christmas cards:

Puny Pals Bear coloured using Shinhan markers then the hat is cut from the Bear in the Beary Christmas Cardmaking Stamp. The red glitter lights are from the Beary Christmas complements

PML paper trimmed and torn at the bottom and then bear and fox cut and coloured from the same stamp set. Red dots are the Beary Merry Dots included in the Workshop Your Way pack.

Ho Ho Ho and green stars cut from the PML sheet. Bear from the Beary Christmas complements. Glitter dots from the Beary Christmas dots.

PML sheet trimmed down. Fern holly leaves free cut from a scrap of cardstock. Red dots from the Beary Christmas Dots.  This card is seriously the quickest card you will ever make.

I really wanted to show you our beautiful stamp "Stronger Together Sentiments" C1716 made to support the Red Cross efforts for the recent natural disasters in the U.S.  The profits from this $21 stamp set will go directly to the Red Cross to support relief efforts.  You can purchase it from your consultant (or if you don't have a consultant feel free to order with me www.nellward.ctmh.com.au )  This stamp set features 8 sentiments designed to uplift and inspire.  I have used one of the sentiments with the aqua snow spot from the Beary Christmas PML sheet.  Paired with silver glitter trim and some torn bashful cardstock, this card is sweet and simple.

And just to prove that this pack is not all about cards - this layout is all ready for my 2018 Christmas photos.  Notice how I have left plenty of space so that I can fit lots of photos!  And yes, you might have guessed, this is another "Bring back the border" page. This time I just cut a 1/2" off the end of the poinsettia paper so that it is framed by the lighter side of the lagoon cardstock - and a note on that.. I really BADLY wanted to use Glacier cardstock for this but I was waiting on an order (I know - crazy to run out of one of my favourite colours!)  This would have been too in your face with our standard Lagoon cardstock but now that all of our cardstock is two toned I turned the pages over to the lighter side and voila!



That is it from me right now. We are off to the Eyre Peninsula on a road trip (more memories to scrap when I return!)  Now head over to see what Doris has been creating!
Until next time,
Keep smiling,
Nell

Australasian Blog Hop - Christmas Tunes Stamp of the Month

Hello and welcome to our Australasian Blog Hop for October.  Did you arrive here from Doreen's lovely blog?  This month we feature the beautiful Christmas Tunes Stamp of the Month.  As usual this stamp is available for $7.50 with a $75 order this month only.

Whilst I can see this stamp making easy Christmas cards, it will also work really well for Christmas themed pages (and I also cut the "Baby it is cold outside" sentiment from the inside of the snow globe so that I can use the sentiment on Winter pages and the snow globe with other stamps inside it!)

I really had fun using this stamp with our new Christmas ranges.

First up is a little card with Ruby card stock and ink and a bit of red glitter ribbon. The heart paper is from the Silver and Gold Workshop Your Way.

For the next card I again used Ruby cardstock but paired it with the grey from out of the Silver and Gold Workshop Your Way.  I cut the "falalalala" out of the inside of the PML card which then became the grey and white border.  I added a 1/4 inch strip of silver paper to the bottom of the white card and  I used memento black ink to stamp the snow globe (with the sentiment cut out of it) and the little bear which is my favourite from the Beary Christmas Scrapbooking stamp set (Z4047)  A spot of carmine Shinhan marker on his nose, the bauble and the hat was all that was needed to complete this little card.  I love it! Perfect for a fellow teddy bear lover!

My last project was again working on the back log of Christmas photos from last year.  I used the SOM bauble with the Silver and Gold Cardmaking Holiday stamps (C1689) to create my baubles along the top with Willow and Ruby ink.  A cricut cut tree and a few silver sequins just finished off the look with a banner (which incidently was in my scraps box left over from cutting the "Christmas" thincuts for card buffet last year!)  Don't be afraid to use your scraps to best advantage.  I try to put any usable scraps in one of our large organisers (with the compartments removed) and then anytime I have a bit of spare time I sit and play just with the scraps.  I love to feel like I am getting something from nothing and creating with old scraps mixed with new product is my very favourite way to work!

I think you will really enjoy this stamp and it works so well with other Christmas stamps and papers in our range.

So that is it from me.  I love to read your comments (and have especially enjoyed the comments being left by our American friends on the last few hops!) Please click on Rachel's blog to continue the hop.
Until next time,
Keep smiling,
Nell