Back in March, Mum & Dad’s beloved Cavoodle Toby crossed the rainbow bridge. He was just shy of his 11th Birthday and was their little fur baby. My children ADORED him and his passing has left a huge hole in all of our hearts.

One of our fur babies crossed the rainbow bridge when Charlotte was only 2 months old, and then the other in 2011, so it’s been a while since we’ve had the patter of furry feet in our house. Toby was like our adopted fur baby, and came to stay sometimes which the kids loved. He greeted me every morning I went to work at mum & dad’s too, and we all miss him terribly.

Toby had been a frequent flyer at the vet with a rare form of Cushings disease, and so with that came the loving care from many of the vet nurses and our beloved vet Dr Bob.

When the time came, mum wanted to say thank you to all the staff members at Ultimate Vet Clinic and asked me to make cards for them.

Some of the cards are personalised with Toby’s name, and spaces left for photographs on them. Whilst this was a sad occasion to be creating cards for, it was one done with lots of love.

The vet nurses and Dr Bob loved the cards and the personalised nature of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I make most of my cards to order, I’m more than happy to create a pet sympathy card for you. Feel free to email me your request.

“Faithful friends will always leave footprints on our heart” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlotte & Roslyn

My daughter, and many of her friends are celebrating their 10th Birthdays this year and my dearest friend’s daughter is exactly 8 weeks older than Charlotte. I created these lovely invitations for her elegant gathering at a local tea house  (T.E.A Company) which has quickly become a favourite place for us to go. The children’s high tea is fabulous value for money and presented in the most adorable way.

As we were having High Tea to celebrate, I thought it only fitting that I featured a teapot on the invitation.

I began with a basic Easel Card in coordinating cardstock colours to the patterned paper I used. To make an easel card base, all you need to do is fold the front of a card in half to stand up and create a tent. For this card, the base card was in Kaisercard – Avocado. I still had some of the True Romance collection in my stash which has since been deleted by Kaisercraft. I get a little sad when my favourite papers are deleted! Please tell me I’m not alone!

To make sure the teapot stood out from the background, I cut a rectangle of ‘Candy’ and then ran it through my Sizzix Texture Boutique using a flourish folder. Having this extra layer made the card quite sturdy.

I used the ‘Vintage teapot with label‘ file from the craft room, and the labels were perfect for announcing Roslyn’s Birthday. I ‘Print & cut‘ the top layer with her name, and ran the bottom layer through the embossing machine.

The invitation portion was created in the InVue software before printing. I made use of the ‘time for tea’ file and the teacup from the ‘Kitchen Tea Set’ among the text.

When you make easel cards, foam squares or tape come in handy to raise your layers up so the card has something to rest upon when it’s opened. I love these cards because they lay flat for posting and then can sit up on display and look quite impressive on the mantel.

All Roslyn’s guests loved the invitations (as did their mums) and I love creating invitations that people will want to hold onto as keepsakes.

Along with the invitations, I whipped up some extra labels to be tied onto small jars as party favours. A little piece of lace wrapped around the jar transformed it from plain to pretty.

If you’re interested in more inspiration and details about other invitations I’ve created, hop over to my post on the Slumber party invites I created for my daughter last year.

Stay tuned for my next post – I’ll be sharing with you Charlotte’s fabulous 10th Birthday party, complete with invitations, decor and props.

Think Left and Think Right, Think Low and Think High. Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Who doesn’t love a Dr Seuss quote?

We had a first birthday party to go to last month with a Dr Seuss theme, and so making a card for the Birthday Boy to match the theme is just what I love to do!

For those of you with Pazzles Craft Room memberships you will know that it is a treasure trove of files and inspiration just waiting to come to life in your projects. If you’re not a Craft Room Member – sign up! I didn’t think I needed it when I first got my machine, but soon realised it was more than worth the membership.

Now, the card …. I admit I left this one right ’til the last minute, but it didn’t matter because it was super easy to put together!

Starting with my card base I drew a rectangle measuring 6 inches high and 8 inches wide so I could draw a dotted (fold) line down the centre so when the card was folded it was a regular 4×6″ card which fits perfectly into a C6 Envelope for my fellow Aussie residents.

To give the card a nice look, I rounded each of the corners with the move point tool in the InVue Software.

There are many versions of the pennant and scalloped circle, so use whichever you like the look of. The ‘Fun Thing‘ file was the one I used for the Thing 1 image.

I made use of the Print & Cut function for the character image instead of cutting out multiple pieces – it speeds up your project and gives a nice clean look. I did add a number 1 to his belly for this particular birthday too. I drew a circle and positioned the Fun Thing graphic into the centre of it before printing it out, and then cutting it out.

After selecting which cardstock colours I wanted, and cutting each element, the process of putting the card together took mere minutes. For some extra texture I ran the pennant and scalloped circle through my Sizzix Texture Boutique with the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder.

I cut out George’s name using a Dr Seuss font I had in my collection, and then added a small bow to the top of the pennant. Voila! Card done.

Thanks for stopping by.

Entertaining is something mum and I love to do together, and we both enjoy cooking and making a table look amazing. We planned this high tea together last year for our dear friend Julie who was turning 60. Unfortunately, mum broke her shoulder quite severely and was out of action for a long time so the high tea was postponed.

We finally got around to holding this special High Tea earlier this month and it was a wonderful success.

I had already created invitations for our event last year, but created more for the new date.

I used my trusty Pazzles Vue for both of them. I kept both invites quite simple, but the finishing touches make a huge difference to how an invitation presents when it is complete. The original invite was simply a scalloped circle with a smaller circle inside for the printed invitation. To make it extra special I covered the purple cardstock in a repeated pattern of a rubber stamp in purple ink so it was subtle, but pretty.

 

 

The new invitations I designed completely in my InVue software. I selected craft room files for the flourishes and teapot graphic and changed up the fonts. I layered some plain cardstock with printed information with the patterned cardstock that had been cut out using the doilie frame craft room file. A little KindyGlitz glitter glue around the border lifted the invites up another notch.

At the end of the table I placed the triple tag easel card that I made last year as one of my Pazzles DT Projects which you can read about here. I altered the menu slightly and reprinted those pieces.

Mum had arranged many fresh cut flowers from Joe Leuzzi flowers around the dining room and the rest of the house. My favourite arrangements were the carnations in the bucket on the front door, and the flowers in the teapot on the cake stand at the end of the table. She also filled teacups with flowers which looked very pretty amongst our delicious food and the floral tablecloth.

 

Another floral touch was the paper Mache letters which had their faces cut off to create a hollow letter. This hollow was filled with florist foam so mini carnations could fill the letters. Before filling with florist foam though, each letter was given a coating of waterproofing spray and the exterior of each letter painted. Some glitter paint in the same colour as the base colour gave them a bit of a glam feel! You can never have too much sparkle! Dad had cut a piece of skirting to act as a base for the letters to stand up on using double sided tape and it made transporting Julie’s floral name much easier. If you are going to do something like this, having a little water spray bottle on hand to spritz the flowers before your event helps to keep the blooms fresh.

 

I love setting the table for a gathering and making it look beautiful. I get a kick out of doing this and it comes naturally to me I guess. Between the two of us, mum and I have some lovely teacups, plates and platters. We often share our collections for occasions such as this. Once the essential items were set on the table including lovely pale green linen serviettes, one thing was left – place-cards.

 

 

I love the fancy chair box file in the craft room, it makes a perfect place card setting which doubles as a favour box. I used Kaisercraft’s Enchanted Garden double sided paper for these. I also used a file  from the craft room and the print and cut feature to print each attendees name on the small disc atop the doilie file.

Inside each chair box was a perfect mini yo-yo (melting moment) Once filled with this delightful biscuit, I tied a piece of lace ribbon around the box and popped each one on the table for each guest. These were very well received and admired.

There’s more to come about the food we served on the day! In the meantime, look out for some new projects from the Pazzles Blog and have a look here at the Frozen party I created for my son last year if you’ve enjoyed reading about how we decorated for this event.

I don’t know about you, but I love decorating around the house and making things look nice.  I love creating things and then personalising our space with my creations.

I’ve been wanting to create a family monogram for either our front entrance wall or the front door. In this case the front door won and this is what I created.

Head on over to the Pazzles blog for instructions on which Craft Room files I used and how I manipulated them to get my finished product.

Come back next week and I will be sharing with you the very special High Tea mum & I hosted for our dear friend recently.

Have  a great week!

You may be here now because you’ve just read my post on the Pazzles Blog on how I created a clock for ‘Back to School’. If you haven’t come from the Pazzles blog, head over and read that too. 🙂

After creating the clock I thought it would be a nice touch for teaching the time to add another layer that could highlight the 15 minute increments on the clock.

To create this background I created overlapping circles around the Zinnia bloom and then welded them together so it would cut in one piece for ease of placement. Once that layer was done I then print and cut four circles slightly smaller than the background with labels of o’clock, quarter and half past and quarter to.

Once assembled with a few paper blooms with rhinestone centres, the whole clock looks fabulous and is a lovely teaching tool.

You could take it even another step further by using an mdf base and a clock mechanism to make a real working clock. Your Pazzles InVue software can be used for far more than you think. If you have a scroll saw for example, your software can provide printable patterns for you to create.  I also use the software to create printables of all kinds. Let me know in the comments how you use your InVue software and your Pazzles in unique ways.

I hope I’ve inspired you to create and thank you for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Here’s some fun bookmarks I created last month that first appeared on the Pazzles blog.

“Muuuummmm! I’m bored!” Is this something you’re hearing a lot at the moment with the children on summer break or on the weekends?
A quick virtual trip to the Pazzles Craft Room Library could turn the nagging into some constructive, (and creative) time by cutting out some cute animal friends to turn into bookmarks. You could cut out a group of them and the children can do the assembly work and make some for their friends.

School Holidays are almost upon us again here in Victoria and that means finding things to do with the kidlets!

I couldn’t go past the cute little Miss Kate Cuttables Penguins for this project. It’s so easy to do once you’ve selected your cardstock. Simply cut each element and then the children can do the rest by assembling the layers. The only trick here is that you don’t glue down the tummy. Keep one layer unstuck so you can use this to slip over your page of your book. This leaves their cute little eyes peering over the top of your book!

There are so many potential bookmarks hiding in the Craft Room. You just need one element to remain unstuck so you’re able to slip it over the page. We’d love to see your creations by uploading to the Pazzles Albums in the Craft Room community.
These would make terrific favours for a party too. I’m always after food free favours for parties. Have fun creating these cute little guys! We certainly did.

If you didn’t catch my blog post on the Pazzles blog earlier this month, here it is.

Candles are such a beautiful addition to a table setting or as home décor pieces, and what better way to jazz up your next dinner party than to quickly whip up your own candle decoration to sit your flameless candles in?

By using the elegant background (8.5 x 11 & 4×6) and that alone, you will have fantastic table décor in minutes.

I kept mine simple and used plain black cardstock to mimic the lovely Moroccan candle vases you see everywhere and resized roughly to what I wanted. From there, your trusty Pazzles Vue does all the work.

The only thing left to do when it’s finished cutting is lift it off (the spatula tool really helps here) and use double sided tape to secure it and pop it over a flameless candle.

My images have regular candles pictured, but flameless should most definitely be used!

I’m looking forward to creating more in different sizes and patterns and doing some smaller patterns for tea lights to use as place settings for a dinner party. These can very easily be adapted for holiday themes in coordinating coloured cardstock. As with every project on your Vue, the possibilities are endless.

 

These would look great in the garden for a summer evening too.

Have fun creating!

It’s almost freezing here in Melbourne at the moment, but we are in the middle of winter! We’ve had some really chilly days and just about everyone you talk to wants to be somewhere warmer. How about staying in with the heater on and creating a summer layout to capture some fun times with the kiddos over the summer?

Head over to the Pazzles blog to see how I created this fun summer layout to capture the fun time Charlotte & Zachary had with their slip n slide they got for Christmas a couple of years back.

There are so many fantastic files to choose from in the craft room library that you can create anything! The fun thing is too that you can just select one element from some of the cutting files or mix and match several different ones.

The layout even looks great without the photos in it!

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to follow me on both Pinterest and Facebook.

I’m sharing with you today some invites I created for my daughter’s 9th Birthday sleepover earlier this year.

In the Pazzles Craft Room Library, you will find this cute sleeping bag cutting file. It’s in the craft room with a camping theme, but is also perfect for sleepovers. I’ve used this file for both invitations and birthday cards and they always look great, and are something different for the recipient.

I like to use double sided cardstock for the top of the sleeping bag so that when you fold it back you have a decorative pattern showing. You could also use plain cardstock and then use a decorative paper to line the sleeping bag with.

The little pillow is perfect for placing a name on and when adhered to the sleeping bag with foam squares gives it a 3D effect.

Like with any of the craft room files and the InVue software, you can re-size any file to suit your application. You could even make miniatures of these for placecards at the dinner table!

I love non-food party favours and when I saw some inexpensive onesies at Kmart I knew I had to buy them for the girls and then jazz them up with some rhinestones. I already had a love heart template in my drawer so all I needed to do was get out my rhinestones and iron. Once you’ve made a rhinestone template with your Pazzles Inspiration Vue you can re-use them over and over. Have a look at this video if you haven’t seen how easy creating rhinestone designs is.

The girls looked so cute in their matching onsies and they loved the little bit of bling. The first initial of each guest’s name could have also been done on each pair.

The favour bags were kraft paper bags and I jazzed them up using my Pazzles machine – you can see how by visiting the Pazzles blog here. Inside the bags were a bottle of nail polish and a pillowcase. Before dinner the girls had fabric markers and decorated their pillow cases. They also wrote on Charlotte’s so she had a memory of who was at her sleepover.

Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share these projects with you.