Family | Nikki Stalker Independent Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator

My husband’s nephew had his wedding last Saturday so of course I needed to make a card. This was left very last minute as the whole thing was a bit of a schumuzzle for us.

We have 4 children ranging in age from 8 1/2 years to 14 1/2 years and when my SIL let us know they were getting married I asked about children and was told there was an age restriction and it was High School age. I only have 1 in High School but my second eldest (who will be in High School next year) was invited too. My husband (who is also the groom’s godfather and only sibling on his mothers side) and I decided we wouldn’t be attending with only 1/2 our family. However we did decide to go to the church. At first anyway. Then with all the rubbish that kept going on because we wouldn’t leave 2 of our girls behind we decided we wouldn’t go at all. That was until Tuesday last week and my husband informed me he was going. Men!!! When I said I’d have to try and find something for us girls to wear his comment was he wasn’t dressing up but he’d give me some money to buy some clothes. Money was the least of my concerns but of course he didn’t get that. A nice pair of dress pants, shirt and tie and he’s right, however he did wear a suit and tie. He totally didn’t understand how hard it would be to find Summer clothes at this time of year for us girls. My 2nd eldest was covered as she had a dress suitable from the Year 6 farewell last year, I also found suitable clothing for the younger 2 in their wardrobes but my eldest and I still needed something.

So on Wednesday I went shopping. I managed to find something for my eldest rather quickly but it took a few hours and many clothes changes to find something suitable, comfortable and that I liked and would wear again for me. Then I needed shoes for us both. Luckily we are the same size foot and I got a bargain on the shoes as they were on special so I got the 2 pairs for the price of what one would have originally cost. I just hoped I’d managed wearing heals for a few hours as I’m normally in flats all the time or a smallish heal like I purchased from my daughter. I did well though and the shoes were quite comfy actually. Of course then I needed to accessories my daughter. Hubby phoned while I was selecting some jewellery and a little handbag for my daughter and couldn’t work out why she needed those. Men just don’t get it, do they? It wasn’t expensive stuff and my daughter was thrilled when I gave it all to her that afternoon. Of course she tried it all on straight away so we knew it fit and looked nice and then she tucked it away and her father had to wait till Saturday to see it all.

We took a few pictures before we left. Unfortunately the glare from the sun was hitting us right in the face.

Here’s a photo of our girls with hubby and then one with our girls and me. Why is it you never have everyone smiling.

So back to the card.

As I said this was a last minute thing so I went browsing Splitcoaststampers for some ideas/inspiration using the ‘Together Forever’ stamp set. I came across this lovely card by Chat (aka nitestamper) and decided to pretty much CASE it. I’ve made a few minor changes but not too many.

So this is my end result.

I loved the colour combination and the layout for this card. I had no idea what the colours of the wedding were (and no they weren’t Baja Breeze) but I thought this was still soft and elegant colour combination to use. Thanks Chat for the inspiration.

We are glad we went to the church service. It was very short only lasting 1/2 hour and was basically just an exchange of nuptials but that’s what they wanted and it pleased the family. The bride looked lovely of course and the rain held off till after the service. The photographer managed to get one group shot before the rain fell too much and then the bridal party and immediate family went back into the lovely old sandstone church and hopefully had some more photos in there. The guests all went on to the reception and for us, as we were all already dressed up we went out for dinner at our local revolving restaurant.

Till next time…..

Happy Stamping

Can anyone tell me…..

3 comments

3D Items

Now I know it’s a busy time of year but I certainly didn’t think it was 10 days since my last post. I would have thought as my girls got older I’d be less busy at this time of year but no such luck. I’ve ended up with more school commitments (partly due to P & C and others are just basic end of school year things), I left Christmas shopping till 2 weeks ago as I had no idea what to get them but am very proud to say I did 90% of it in 3 hours on one day (but am still yet to wrap anything), then of course there are more social functions happening too. Not that I attend a lot but as you know we had our Team Christmas dinner and then that same weekend I had a neices’ 21st Birthday and of course my Summer Mini/SU Business Launch. That was one full weekend but I survived.

The following weekend was my regular fortnightly Friday night stamp night and this year we decided to have our own Christmas Party. We did Kris Kringle gifts but made it non-stamping items for the gift and everyone had to bring a plate of food suitable to the Christmas theme. I decided to make a Truffle Tree so my Friday was full on. It started with me making a start on the truffles (some needed to be mixed and then left for a few hours before rolling into balls), to my pool man turning up to fix a leak with our chlorinator and in the process soaking me, getting redressed as I needed to attend a Gold Plus Award Assembly followed by Sausage sandwich lunch with my 11 year old daughter, to coming home to make more truffles, then school pick up, straight to the swim school to have my girls assessed for classes next year, then back to finish the truffles. Decided amongst all that that dinner would be take out. Something had to give.

Anyway, would you like to see my finished Truffle Tree??

I have made the truffles before but never constructed it into a tree so there are a few spaces I would have filled up a little more. Unfortunately I didn’t have any thin gold ribbon to add as that would have added an extra touch and filled those bare patches up a little. The truffles I made were Coffee Liqueur (Tia Maria), Almond Truffles (Amaretto) and Orange Truffles (Cointreau). I still have enough left for Christmas so I’m really glad they store well….. I’m sure my mum will have a few.

I’ll be back in a little while to finally share some of my Secret Santa Gifts from our Team Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

A Birthday Gift

4 comments

3D Items

I had another family birthday this week and we’ll be catching up with her on Saturday afternoon so I’ve been busy making her gift. This is a special birthday as she turned 21.

I won’t go into detail of what she’s getting but I will share with you the finished product.

This is the complete set of handmade items.

We have a decorated gift bag, a fantasy/stepper box, a money holder and of course the birthday card.

I’ve use the lovely Walk In the Park Designer Series Paper and Great Friend Stamp set which unfortunately isn’t available for purchase any longer. I have lots of the dsp left over from my World Card Making Day event as we only used 2 prints so this was a great use for another one and what better way than creating something for family.

I think this is gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I hope she likes it too along with the other gifts she’ll receive from us.

This was quite a simply set to make. I’ve made a few of the fantasy/stepper boxes now so they get quicker each time.

For the birthday card I didn’t have any number stamps so I created the 21st on my computer using an outline font and printed directly onto some DSP. I’ve then cut them out and adhered Dazzling Diamond Glitter to them.

Here’s a closer look.

I’ve stamped the ‘happy’ and ‘birthday’ from the Happy Everything stamp set using Versamark and embossed with Black EP.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Great Friend, Happy Everything
Inks: Cameo Coral, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Card: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP
Accessories: Kiwi Kiss & Baja Breeze Striped grosgrain ribbon, So Saffron Twill (past promo item), Stamp-a-ma-jig, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds, Glue Stick, Sticky Strip, Black EP, Hidden Garden Rub-on (retired), White Gift Bag.