Craft Club...

Went along to Niki's Craft Club this morning and as usual she had a fab project for us to do, we made a card and matching gift box. And as you can see from the pics it is a rather fancy gift box!

Don't you just love the ruffled ribbon, we did this with seam binding. You need to gently pull a middle thread so that it just gathers along the length... very pretty!

The lid of the gift box is decorated with a ribbon rosette that you make using the 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain from Stampin' Up!, First punch a 1 3/4" circle from cardstock and then completely cover it with double sided tape. Take a length of ribbon and fold it in half lengthways and stick this folded end to the outer edge of the circle. Then just twist the ribbon and stick down to the double sided tape turning the circle as you go, keep twisting and sticking until you get to the centre. Then punch a small hole in the middle of the cardstock and feed the end of the ribbon through this, leaving a small loop to form the centre of the rosette.

Thanks for looking!
Kirei x

Simply Stampin' Challenge - Sketch

It's time again for a Sketch challenge over at the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog, sketches are a great way to get you started particularly if you are stuck for an idea which I often am! Here is this week's Sketch...

And this is what I came up with...

Products used (all by Stampin' Up! unless specified):

Cardstock: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade, Whisper White

Paper: In Colours Paper Patterns Stack

Ink: Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade

Accessories: Concord Crush & Poppy Parade Stitched Poly Ribbon, 1 3/8" & 1 1/4" & 3/4" Circle Punch

Stamp Sets: Big Bold Birthday

Thanks for looking!
Kirei x

A special Scrapbook...

A friend from work has just relocated to the US to take on this amazing job with our company's head office, I worked with Jonathan for almost 9 years until he moved into a new role in Marketing almost 3 years ago. I thought a scrapbook of his time in Store Operations would be the perfect leaving present as this is the Dept that he had spent most of his time in... so I asked everyone who had worked with him in Ops to give me a photo of themselves with Jonathan along with a message for him. I made little cards for the messages that are tucked behind each photo, don't you love the little Mickey head brads!

And this is what I ended up creating, I was pretty pleased with it in the end...

Whew.... that was a long post!

Thanks for looking!
Kirei x

Simply Stampin' Challenge - Theme

Oops, but I am running a little late this week with my Design Team entry for this week's challenge over at the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog. The theme for this week was 'Punch it Up!' and I went with something that I saw on Splitcoaststampers by the very talented Julie, I kept to her monkey design but just tweaked the overall card design a little. I have made a version of this card before and I think it looks very cute!

Products used (all by Stampin' Up! unless specified):

Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Chocolate Chip. Old Olive

Accessories: Word Window Punch, Circle Punches - 1 3/4", 1 3/8", 1 1/4", 3/4", 1/2", 1/4", Oval Punch, Two-step Bird Punch, Retired Flower Punch, Martha Stewart Grass Punch, Chocolate Chip Marker 

Stamp Sets: Retired Vintage Labels Stamp Set

Look forward to seeing all of your 'Punch it Up!' entries this week, remember all entries from last week until Challenge #23 will go into a draw and the lucky winner will get the cute Stampin' Up! Forest Friends Stamp Set as their prize! Click here to see the details....

Thanks for looking,
Kirei x

Simply Stampin' Challenge - Colour Combo

Over at the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog it is the time for another Colour Combo and this week it is Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and Pacific Point...

And this is what I came up with...

Products used (all by Stampin' Up! unless specified):

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Pacific Point

Paper: Subtles Paper Patterns Stack

Ink: Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Pacific Point

Accessories: Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Pearls (not SU), Eyelet Border Punch, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch

Stamp Sets: Baroque Motifs, Silhouette Sentiments

Hope you can play along too!

Thanks for looking,

Kirei x

Weekend in Vienna...

I've been meaning to post photos of our weekend to Vienna in July so finally here they are! We had a fab 4 days with an Aussie friend of mine Donna, and her husband Aldo. They have both taken a 6 month break from work in Oz to come and travel through Europe and we went over to spend a few days with them. We met friends of theirs from South Africa, Christou and Ingrid, who had also come over though they were doing a few more weeks travelling with them after Vienna.

Went and wandered around the Naschmarkt where you can buy anything from flowers, wine, fresh food, clothes, shoes etc... We took a break to enjoy a typical Austrian lunch... Vienna Schnitzel, Bratwurst and beer!

Just next to the Naschmarkt were these beautifully decorated buildings, the more striking of the two was called the Majolikahaus after the glazed pottery used for the weather-resistant surface decoration...

 Visited the stunning Schonbrunn Palace...

We couldn't be in Vienna and not sample the famous Sachertorte... so we went along to the Hotel Sacher where it originated...



Travelling on the Vienna U-Bahn (Underground)...

Donna & Aldo...

 Me and Lee...

 Christou and Ingrid...

Went to see the Vienna Residence Orchestra and had a very enjoyable couple of hours watching the orchestra, opera singers and ballet all perform to pieces by Mozart and Strauss...

On our last day Lee and I had time to go and visit Grinzing which is an old wine village on the outskirts of Vienna. Here you can find what they call Heuriger which are essentially taverns that in theory only serve the wine that comes from their own vineyards. They don't open until later in the day but they were very pretty to look at...

Vienna was a beautiful city and I can highly recommend it for a weekend city break!

Thanks for looking,
Kirei x

Posting comments...

Just wanted to mention that I am having trouble posting comments on other blogs... not sure why but it seems to direct me to signing in and then brings up the letters that you have to copy before showing the post as done by 'anonymous'. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this they would be very welcome! So apologies as I have been looking at all of the entries on the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog but not able to post a comment. Hope I can fix it soon!

Kirei x

Simply Stampin' Challenge - Sketch

Running a little late this week! I have been working on a scrapbook for a work colleague who is leaving to take up a role in the US with our offices there and that has taken up all of my time! I will post some pics of that soon once I have taken photos of it.

Anyway, this week's challenge over at the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog is a sketch..

And this is what I came up with...

The Stamp-A-Ma-Jig was well used for this card! For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a tool that allows you to stamp exactly where you want to and works very well when you are doing two-step stamping as I did with the trees.

Products used (all by Stampin' Up! unless specified):

Cardstock: Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Whisper White

Ink: Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Pacific Point

Accessories: Retired Melon Mambo Spotted Ribbon, Jumbo Eyelets

Stamp Sets: Trendy Trees, Curly Cute

Tools: Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

 

Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

 

Thanks for looking,

Kirei x