Black, White and Bling.....

Yes, we are still creeping around the house to check out the decorations while Santa sleeps.  Yes...he's still sleeping....recharging his battery!  I love that photo just above.....yes....I do love it.  No I didn't drag out my christmas tree.  This is our vintage midget tree.  How midget....60cm tall.  How vintage?  Hmm....19 years.  Yes...this tree is 19 years old...and it hasn't grown!!!  I dressed it up with some gorgeous clear crystal blings and home made white baubles.  Pretty hard to tell unless you squint and tilt your head to the side and use your imagination....but the white cardstock was embossed before I made the baubles.  So...irl...they're pweeety pweeeety!!

This morning.....MOTH (Man of the House) asked me what he can give his Secret santa recipient.  I asked when the party was....his answer....today.  Grrr....luckily I managed to find a suitable gift and wrapped it up all nicely and he went to work one very happy man.  Then tonight....he came home to find that I had done a few lolly jars....done...as in tipped some lollies into small glass jars...and asked for one for one of his work colleagues.  So here it is ....prettied up beyond an inch of it's life.  I totally love the bauble card...I will be making 15 more as they were just too quick to make.

That's about it till tomorrow.....will find more stuff to take pics of.  I am going to do my christmas album after christmas...so these photos are for a reason.  hehehe.  Btw....MOTH came home with a Cadbury chocolate fondue set.  That was what he got from his SS.  Pretty cool!!!  I think we might have to road test it Christmas eve!!!  Asides from strawberries and marshmallows....what else is good for a chocolate fondue?

While Santa slumbers.....

Went to Chadstone on the weekend to get this vase and bowl.  Surpringly enough...I don't have vases or glass bowls.  I have a shit load of tupperware.  Must be the mother of 3 clumsy boys in me that makes me tupperware inclined.  Anyways....I really wanted clear bowls and vases for my shiny baubles...so shopping time.  Came home and couldn't wait to set it all up.  Pretty silver bells in the hurricane vase and pink and silver shiny baubles in the salad bowl.

Then yesterday I found these cane balls.  White cane balls.  Do you know how hard it is to find these????  I don't either....I've seen them in dark brown and green....but not white.  So had to snap up half a dozen of them.  Pwetty pwetty!  I think I might string them up and hang them from the ceiling and might add a ribbon on the cane ball too.

Yesterday this arrived in the mail.  It's my EB secret Santa gift.  Gorgeous gorgeous Jingle Bells wall hanging.  Gorgeous colours with a smidge of bling and some transparency stars which are in the lower right hand corner.  Jo also spoiled me with a voucher to Lincraft!  New trimmer here I come!!!

Silent Night....Holy Night....

Shhh....Santa's sleeping ....he needs all the rest he can get.  He's going to have one super long long busy night in front of him....so he takes the chance to snooze when he can.    hehehe..let's just quietly tiptoe around my house to see my Christmas decorations.

Halo I and Halo II.  No...I didn't name them that.  I used to collect Beanie babies. No no no...not when I was little......when I was an adult...when I was a mother.  Yes...I collected Beanies.   I started off collecting the Skansen Beanie Kids....and had quite a good collection include Blackie the Expo Bear number 1!!!  Then I got a bit bored with Beanie Kids...so I sold off my collection...co-incidently to the mother of a girl who would end up being Jordan's classmate!  So I started collecting Ty Beanie Babies.  I still have quite a lot of them!  So yes...Halo 1 and Halo 2 come out once a year during the Christmas time.  They're so pretty!

Garlands...I have two.  One stretching across the top of our sliding doors in the family/computer room.  And one more on the other end of the room....in the L window of the loungeroom.  I bought the Garlands a while ago and when I change Christmas decor colours...I have to redo the garland as well.  Love love love the beaded wire stars!!

I did these a few Christmases ago.  When Basic Grey first brought out their bauble kit...I had to get it and even assembled them at work while the baby napped.  That first christmas, those paper balls were displayed in a big wide bowl on my dining table.  Then the following Christmas, BG brought out those star ornaments....had to get those too...and I assembled them and then bought the silver spinning diamonds and orbs and put it all together with fishing line and hung them from the ceiling.  OK...DH helped a lot with that task.  I have two clusters of these ornaments.  4 strings in my loungeroom...and then 2 strings in the dining room.  I love the shadows these cast on the walls at night.

More to share later...toodles!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Thought I'd share some photos each day in the lead up to Christmas of the decorations in the house.  This is just a little bowl of colourful baubles and candy canes.  Some of the candy canes were done at Scrapware using their gorgeous Christmas products. So totally yummy!!!

oh by the way Santa....

Dear Santa

Please delete number 3 from my wish list.  I've succumbed and purchased myself a subscription to the Real Living magazine.  And now I'm in trouble with Mrs Vass because she thinks I'm not doing a proper wish list.  A wish list just for wishing.  For me.. a wish list is like a 'to buy' list.  Ok...so after a bit of a think....I have other things to add to my wish list....

3. clear vases (big tall wide cylindrical ones)

4.  Big bundle of decorative twigs and sticks - oh I don't know what exactly they are called...but I've seen them in homeware stores.  Big enough to make a striking display.

5. Scrapbook Trends Digital Scrapbooking ideas book

6. Stampin Up Deer Friends set

7. Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder

8. Medium Bag optimiser from bagorganiser.com.au

lots of love

Ruey - who promises to try and not knock off anymore items off her wish list until 2009

Shania in the spotlight!!

Yay...issue 73 of For Keeps Creative Paper is finally out.  Big congrats to Vita for her amazing cover!!  All the projects look fantastic together!!

Anyways....I was asked to do a Finishing Touch Ideas advertorial focussing mainly on their embellishments.  hehehe...can you tell how much fun I had?  I love brads...and buttons...so I really was in my element.   I was really pleased with how the layouts turned out.  Love love love those cutie pie pics of Shania.  And trust me....this little girl is not very girly at all.  I'm always in stitches watching her antics on facebook.  Thanks Sis for taking lots of videos for me.

I also did a Craftools advertorial on the Tonic Cutting system.  This system was lots of fun and really easy to use.  Totally love the wavy cutter.  And yep...it's a bright bright Rose Moka New York layout.  Man....I love this layout...yah...I know it's simple...but all the colours really sing to me!!

And last project in the mag is this....a summer party feature.  Icy pole invites, lolly baskets, lolly bag and sunny boys!!  This is the first time I have ever had so much stuff in the one mag.  And I'm sure it wasn't planned ....as I was asked to do the things fairly spaced apart.  But it was good. 

Friday was another impromptu scrapbooking night.   Mich, Vita and Lyndal came over.  Vita gave us a pizza box tutorial - yay...another cutesy little thing I know how to make!!  The main reason for the impromptu crop was that I was itching to zutter....so I invited Mich around so I could use and abuse her brand new zutter...yes it was brand new...still in packet new....brand spanking new.  But of course....I let her use it first and then I had lots of fun with it.

I wanted to make notebooks and mini albums for family and non scrapping friends and for teachers etc.  Little token gifts....so whipped these up.  Well...I just cut and zuttered things!  I also did 3 christmas albums and 4 post it note holders.  And these are just notebooks and minialbums which are super easy to make.  I have a lot of 'system cards' which go into index file boxes.  So those lined sheets are my pages.  With the notebooks which are bound at the top, I've just bought some cheap notepads from the elcheapo shop and just made covers for them.  It's not that I am trying to be cheap....I just want something that is useful.  A non scrapbooking person might not appreciate a mini album which they have to fill out themselves...but everyone needs notebooks and post it note holders.  Handy gifts which are easy to make.  It's a win win situation!!



I have more to show...so I'll take more pics tomorrow to share.

Cards published!!!

I've had more cards published in the last 2 issues of Creative Cardmaking and papercraft.  I've really been enjoying cardmaking in the last 6 months.  These cards were in Issues 14 and 15.

Pop up cards - in a boy theme.  Very easy to make and lots of fun to make.  I used the Inque Boutique stamps....available from Kiti Q.  hehehe

Tri-fold card.  Opens up to say Just because ....I miss you... a bunch.  I think I need to make another one of these as I really like it and it also uses up a lot of small odd pieces of scraps!
Ultra simple card.  No patterned paper at all.  Stamped heat embossed image of the bird which I cut out and coloured.  Used those big Heidi Swapp flowers everyone has in their stash and the card base just has a simple stamped heat embossed flourish.  And of course some bling.
A belated birthday card.  Everyone should have a couple of these in their stash...it's just too easy to make and lots of fun.  Is it bad to plan a belated card???
A pop out card.  Oh so easy and cute cute cute!!  Yet again another boyish card.  It's too easy to make girls cards......but boys cards are so much harder to make esp those cutesy ones for kids under 7.

It all starts with a letter to Santa....

Yes, it's scary how close Christmas is!!!  I'm not ready for Christmas.  I still need to make another dozen or so cards.  I haven't put up the christmas tree .....not because I don't want to...anyone who knows me knows how much I love christmas.  I can't put up the christmas tree because I don't have room for it.  My tree is very tall...it touches the ceiling and it's not one of those slim trees.....I need to reserve around 2m square for the base of the tree.  And I don't have a spare corner in our living areas that big!  So I don't know what I am going to do.  I made a little advent christmas tree for Jeromel.....love how it turned out.  Maybe that can be our tree?  It's the spirit that counts right???

Anyways, before I forget and before I do something silly like post this on another blog (which I did *blush*)....here is my letter to Santa....inspired by Mich.

-----------------------
Dear Santa

I've never written to you before and I don't think you know who I am. So why now are you receiving a letter from a 40 year old who is definately not a child anymore? Because of my friend Michelle Vass. See, she might pick me to win a prize if I write a letter to you. So why not....I might get a pressie from you and I might get a pressie from her. It's a win win situation right? I honestly thought coming up with a wish list would be very easy...but it was hard. Really hard!

Ok...with the naughty and nice list....let me tell you Santa....honestly...sometimes I'm naughty ...I'm no saint....but I'm mostly nice. Let me explain... I'm a Mum.....I like to think I'm a great Mum...I cook, clean, drive, teach, ....and then I also yell and ignore them from time to time. Still...more nice than naughty. And....I've also been a wife for 21 years...yes...anniversary was last Friday. 21 years.....definately nice right? As a friend....I think my friends will vouch that I am more nice than naughty (girls....those shopping sprees and tempting you to buy things.....you don't hold that against me do you?).  Santa, I'm happy to leave it in your capable hands and let you be the judge.

If you think I am nice...nice enough to get a visit from you on Christmas eve....I would love to receive:

1. Sizzix Big Shot - I know I have the cuttlebug...but I also love the Bigz XL dies.

2. Coluzzle starter kit and the nested circle templates 

3. For something non scrapbooking related....a subsciption to Real Living magazine would be appreciated (Jane F got me into this one!)

Thanks Santa!!

From:  The more Nice than Naughty Ruey

ps...did you hear about the dyslexic satan worshipper?  He sold his soul to Santa