WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

This year has flown by and here it is Christmas again. The place is a buzz with everyone trying to get all their last minute shopping done, what fun!!
I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas with your loved ones, health and prosperity for the year ahead.

The picture above is a Jig Saw Swap that I did with some friends about five years ago, I love to hang it each Christmas to remind me of them and how important they are in my life.

MY CHRISTMAS CARDS FOR THIS YEAR

I've been very busy making lots of Christmas Cards for family and friends plus my online friends on my Yahoo group. I've also been making other gifts for my family which of course I can't post just yet in case any of the stop by to take a look. I've made 80+ cards, lost track of the exact number, but I needed to make several different designs to keep myself interested, otherwise I couldn't keep making the one design for so many cards.

I finished most of my shopping yesterday and won't need to go and tackle the crowds until Christmas Eve now for last minute food items. I'm so excited, this year my whole family will be together for Christmas which isn't possible every year, so we are all really looking forward spending some special time together.

CHRISTMAS BANNER

This was the project for the class that I taught this week at Scrapawhile. The girls loved doing this banner, all of them did the theme of CHRISTMAS and all did lovely but completely different takes on the theme.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR ANNE

Here is the Christmas present that I made for my friend Anne. A group of my arty friends got together last Saturday for our Annual Christmas Party, we each drew the name of one of the girls to hand-make a present for. This shadow box took on a life of it's own, once I got started, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and the fact that it was for Anne made it all the easier. I asked Anne to send me some photos of herself when she was a child and some photos of her parents and I have included them into the gift. By the way, Anne absolutely LOVED her present. :)

CHRISTOBELLA

Introducing Christobella, the "Garden Spirit" which I made for Mary, who was my partner in a swap of Art Dolls. She has flown down to Mary's house in Victoria, where I hope that the will enjoy each other's company.

A TRIP TO SYDNEY.....STAMP SHOPPING

Last week, I went to Sydney for the day with my friends, Heather and Dorothy. We caught an early train and arrived bright and early to make the most of the day. When we arrived, another friend, Anne was waiting for us, so we had a cup of coffee and some banana bread before we started shopping, you need lots of sustenance for a whole day of stamp shopping. After spending much time and money in the first shop, we moved on to the next shop where we also spent lots of time and bought lots more goodies as well. We then went and had a lovely lunch and a big long chat over lunch. From there we said goodbye to Anne and we left for the train station for our trip home.

I have made some cards with the new stamps that I brought, still have lots to try out yet, but I'll do that this week.

A CANVAS FOR A FRIEND

I have a friend who is going through some challenges in her life at the moment and I saw this verse and it fitted her situation perfectly, so I made this canvas for her and gave it to her last Saturday. She really did love it which made me so happy too.
I hope that it's some comfort to her in the difficult that that she has ahead.

Vintage Wallpaper

These three cards are all made with a background technique called Vintage Wallpaper, inspired by the Technique Junkies newsletter. I love the soft vintage feel of this background, hope you do too.

A COUPLE OF CARDS

I made a few cards yesterday, one with my new stamp "Girl on a Swing from Fay at Port Macquarie. I love this image, it feels so lovely and free.
The other card is one which I made for the "Little Girl Theme" on Boomerang.

ART DOLL REVISITED

Just a few pics of my art doll which I previously posted. I decided that she needed a little "adjusting" and thought that I had better take some pics. At the Luncheon in Sydney last week, Anne proposed a "one for one" art doll swap and my doll along with Anne's and Linda's was one of the links for ideas etc, so thought I had better put the pictures up. Have fun with it girls, even if it's a little out of your comfort zone. :)

WEEKEND ART WORKSHOP AT NELSON BAY

We have just completed another wonderfully creative weekend at Lemon Tree Passage with the lovely and very talented Joy Bathie. From Friday night until Sunday afternoon, we were totally immersed in creating beautiful books and binding them, inspired by Joy's wonderful Mixed Media art books. I will post just a few pics of the weekend and a couple of pages of inspiration, some of us are still finishing our books and I'll post pics when they are completed. Pictures above show some of Joy's beautiful pages and after completing their pages, a lovely and innovative way of binding them which needed much concentration as seen on the girl's faces.

FLOWER FAIRY ART DOLL

I spent Saturday afternoon making this Art Doll, thanks to inspiration from Linda B who makes beautiful art and has made a video on making an art doll. Thanks to Anne for leading me down the path too. THIS WAS FUN AND I CAN FEEL ANOTHER ONE COMING ON.

HERO ARTS GIVEAWAY

Kathy over at The Daily Marker has some beautiful Hero Arts stamps to give away to celebrate her first anniversary of blogging. Stop over and be inspired by Kathys beautiful cards.

SOME OF MY RECENT CARDS AND CREATIONS

It's quite some time since I put some of my everyday cards on here, so here are quite a lot from recent weeks, some are Friendship Books and some are special cards for Friends. Now off to the studio to spend the day being creative, I have the day all to myself, so I'm making the most of it. Have a great day all.