My Christmas Tree.

I made and painted these stockings with Melanie way back in the late 1980s. Every year I buy, wrap and stuff their stocking with presents. Even the grandchildren get them but not a hand made stocking. One day they will. One year i was over it all so didn't bother with stockings as I didn't think anybody enjoyed them. Boy, was i wrong. Complaints from everybody including darling husband. So i still do them. I give the girls money to go and buy things for mine. They usually add more for me. This is just one of the traditions I enjoy at Christmas.

More Ornaments

Last ones for Christmas Decorations 2008.

Christmas Star Decoration.

Another star I painted and bugged and ran blue metallic Oil pastel over it. I then highlighted some of the embossing with Dimentional Magic.

Cuttlebug Christmas Star.

This is just a simple star. I painted it, bugged it and ran purple Oil Pastel over it. I added the cut up Christmas decorations to it.Once again i made some slits in the chipboard to secure the chains.

Christmas Decorations

Another Basic Grey Ornament. I painted it black, bugged it, gold Oil Pastelled it, Gel Medium, frinkles, more Gel Medium. Then glued the red merry Christmas that was on some item I received or bought and has been sitting in my kitchen for ages. A good use.

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all the people who read my blog and leave comments a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2009. I hope it will be as special as you are. It will be a special year for me as my birthday will read 09/09/09.
Take care and be safe. I have one more lot of Christmas decorations to share and then I am off to bed. I have been to a party tonight at one of my neighbours and had a lovely time. Watched the carols on TV down in Melbourne. I love to watch them every year.

Tuesday Continued

Because it is Cooper's father's turn this year for Christmas he opened his presents from us tonight. Jessica loved helping him. Jessica, Melanie and Amanda also had to open one of their stocking presents.They all had fun.

When it became dark we went over to a suburb that has many houses all decorated for Christmas. It was so nice walking around and boy were the roads and streets there busy.By the time we arrived home it was 9:30 well past 2 little kids bedtime. Cooper plonked himself on Jess.

All in all it was a great day.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a great day as I spent it with my family. Melanie and Jessica and Chloe, Amanda and Cooper and Brian.We all went in swimming in the afternoon. Then we all had a bar-be-que dinner. This was nice as we could sit outside in the fresh air.

Cuttlebug Star Ornament 2

This is another star ornament I bugged. Painted in black, bugged, silver Oil pastels over the top, heated, cooled, the 3D gold Kindy Glitz rubbed over the top. This looks very metallic. All these ornaments look good on my tree.

I have more but will share them later on.

Cuttlebug Star Ornament

This one was painted blue, bugged,silver Oil Pastels over the raised bits, heated, cooled and Crystallina Kindy Glitz over the top.

Cuttlebug Christmas Ornament

This ornamant was traced from a Basic Grey chipboard ornamant onto chipboard. I painted it black and then ran silver ink over it. I then rubbed bronze Kindy Glitz over the 2 other mediums.I inked in bronze Versa Cubes around the edges. On most of these ornamants you will find these 3D embellishments that go on the tree but I cut up into little sections. In this case they are the green string of square shiny beads. They were hard to attach so i have nicked the edges of the chipboard ( cannot even see them) and slotted the string part into the nicks. They are secure.

Cuttlebug Christmas Ornaments

These little Christmas Tree Ornaments I whizzed up

yesterday. I used chipboard, Cuttlebug and embellishments. I have quite a few and the main difference will be the medium I used over the paint and the obvious colour and different bits.This one is
done with Metallic Oil Pastels in green and red.After I heated it and cooled I painted over the whole bauble with Gel Medium. This gives the shine and also protects it.

Cuttlebug Tape and Card.

I used the red tape as a border on this card. I wanted to make the card a little different from the rectangular shape so I cut a piece out at the top and put patterned paper on the part that wasn't cut out.

I used Coredinations cardstock and sanded it for the triangular tree.

Cuttlebug Tape with Borders

Look I what found in my craft cupboard buried and almost forgotten. I looked at it, thought for 1 second and said "Yep that will go through the Cuttlebug." and it did and I have created. This tape is sticky backed and is ideal for cardmaking. I doubt very much that it is acid free so I wouldn't use it in your scrapbooks.

I stuck it to the cardstock before I bugged it, for obvious reasons.

I have put up some samples I have made and will use them eventually.You can further decorate these with gems, kindy glitz etc.

Cuttlebug 3D christmas Tree Card

I have made another 3D card using a tag as a template for the tree and I traced it onto Coredinations Cardstock, bugged it and sanded it. Then I popped Kaiser Pearls in different circles.Nothing is safe in my house. The silver star is from a hair accessory that Amanda used to wear years ago. I just cut it off.

An award from Laura

I received this lovely award from Laura and was tickled pink to receive it. Thank you Laura so much for giving this to me, it makes me feel good to be recognised.

Here are the conditions of this award.

The rules are:
1. Add the logo to your blog. 2. Link to the person from whom you received this award. 3. Nominate 7 or more blogs. 4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog”!

1.Inspirational because they recognise other wonderful blogs and highlight talented people's work.

2.Sally who got me going on cards and inspired me even though she does not know it or know me.

3.Leslie whose work is fantastic and clean cut and creative.

4.Lauraly whose work is also amazing and she has inspired me to do clean but creative styles.This is very hard for me. LOL.

5.Debbie her blog has great tutorials that make me want to go out and get the Nestabilities.

6.Rita whose work continues to inspire me and is such a lovely, thoughtful friend.

7.Rose Ann whose name caught my eye in the first place but whose work is fantastic.

3D card templates

Here is the template for the 3D cards I have been making recently.

You can make the width less than 15cm if you want to make a 3D card with one pattern on it.However, the measurements down the side are proportional.

I make a basic template and then use them over and over again. Saves measuring each time. This one is on paper but I will transfer it to cardboard when I have some time.

Cuttlebug 3D Present Card

Thanks to Libby I "scabbed" a used Bon Bon from a fellow teacher at school. He pulled his Bon Bon and was going to throw it away. Hence the silver card. It has stars on it as apposed to the gold that is a product of SALT. I made this card and designed it myself. The present I drew freehand and transferred them to the card. I cut the presents from silver and the sentiment. The borders are gold and all of them have been bugged. I added some gold ribbon tot he presents.

This card can be used as a Christmas, Birthday or wedding card.

Christmas in a Jar

How cool is this present my good friends Julie, David, Hannah and Nathan gave me last night.It has all the ingredients except the eggs and oil to make these Christmas Brownie. I love it and look out next year somebody will be getting these from me.Julie also gave our friends Helen one and it had Freckles and Hundreds and Thousands in it-colour.

Here is the Recipe in case anybody would like to make this as a gift that is different.

Christmas Brownie.

Method.

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

Grease baking Pan.

Pour contents of jar into large mixing bowl and mix well.

Stir in 1 tsp vanilla essence.

2/3 cup vegetable oil.

3 eggs.

Beat until combined.

Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Ingredients

3/4 cup plain flour. 2/3 cupbrown sugar. 2/3 cup castor sugar. 1/3 cup cocoa powder. 1/2 cup choc chips. 1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans etc)

Science Staff and Whole Staff Christmas Parties.

Friday 19th was the last day at school and the Science staff always has a Secret Santa. Look what my Secret Santa gave me. Just what I wanted . I love Indian, it would have to be my very favourite food. See my desk behind me to the right.

Then afterwards the whole staff had the Christmas party that Science had to organise this year. I have shown the photo in the hall with the beginning 0f the power point presentation I did as my contribution. It went down well.

Me in Class

On Thursday 18th December I made some Russian Caramel and Popcorn for my lovely Yr 7 class. I also got the girls to write this message on the board for my Year 11 class who were coming in to do Biology next lesson. The kids love to write on the board so I made it productive. Year 11 thought it was sweet. However, I have artists in the class who decided to recreate the message by adding more etc. These 17 year olds also love to draw on the board. LOL. How cool does it look?We had more food plus a lesson with my Biology class.

3D Single Bauble Cuttlebug Card

This is the same style as the card previously that I made narrower. I will post the basic template soon and you can put any design on the top. I love 3D cards.

These are different to my other 3D cards I designed last month.

The bauble is made from Basic Grey Christmas paper Mistletoe and Pear, and has been bugged with the snow flake folder and sanded. Joy is a foam Making Memories stamp and the other sentiment is a Kaiser Stamp and naturally Kaiser pearls.

School Holidays-Yippppeeeeeeeeeeee

School holidays are here and I am so happy. Not that I don't like my job, I love it but I have had a big year and feel exhausted. It has been a very successful year for my students and I am so proud of every one of them.

Year 10 did exceptionally well in their School Certificate. My class is the 4th class down and they got 9 band 5s and 4 band 4s which was fantastic. Their marks ranged from 74 to 89. Well done year 10. I went to their Formal and had a wonderful time. It was the best year 10 formal I have been to. It was so nice having my photo taken with my class.

Year 11 blitzed it. They did so well especially 5 of my students whose marks were well above the rest of the year. One of whom received a special award at a special ceremony. It was called the Victor Chang Award. This is the second award my year 11s have received in the last 2 years. I feel so proud.

Year 12-what can I say. I am over the moon. I am so proud and excited over every single one of their results. I knew they would do well. 4 band 6s, 14 band 5s and 4 band 4s. Their marks ranged from 75 to 96. 3 students just missed out on a band 6 by getting 89-grrrrrrrr.I also went to their Formal and it was fantastic. I miss them already.

33 years of teaching. How many more do I have in me. I work hard and get very tired. I receive so much from my teaching, the job satisfaction is so rewarding. These results say it all. It is more than the results indicate, it is seeing the students achieve their personal best that makes this job so rewarding.

So after marking 50 assessment tasks and working out questions for year 12 to answer from their booklets next week I am having a total break from school work until the last few days when I will plan for 2009.

Perhaps I might get some creativity happening.

Cuttlebug Ornament 3D card

I designed this card myself. The sentiment is stamped with a Making Memories foam stamp. The ornaments have been cut from circles and put through the Cuttlebug. I used Coredinations cardstock and sanded them so you have 2 colours. They have been put through the bug in reverse positions. This was a fun card to make.

I love 3D cards.

Year 7-Books

The last topic in year 7 was all about Space. So I got my year 7 class to make this book and put all their researched information in it. It had to be a travel brochure.

It was the year 3030 and aliens from another Solar System were beginning to come to our Solar System for holidays. They had to put together a brochure enticing them here.

I had 30 students int he class making these books and they were fantastic. I made it step by step and they all followed so well. I was very excited.

I did get permission from my students to put this in here.They are a lovely class and I have enjoyed teaching them this year and am thrilled I have them for 1 period of Science a week next year.

Suffolk Puff Christmas Tree

I love Christmas trees and different ways of decorating them. I also love sewing and Suffolk Puffs. So I made a tree from Suffolk Puffs. Cut a circle of fabric and do a running stitch around the edge. Gather it up and tie a knot. Then flatten it so the centre is in the centre. Secure on the background with a stitch or bead, button etc.In this case I used star sequins.

Technique

Here is how I did the last 2 cards.

1.I made a slit with a knife.

2. I slipped the folder into the cut.

3.I then bugged the cardstock.

Easy as!!!!

2 Cuttlebug Border Cards

This border is one of my favourite ones. I don't like cutting the borders so they can be used in various positions on the cardstock so I have worked out a way to do this. Notice in the Oil Pastel card there is no sentiment above the middle flowers but there is on the plain cardstock. Patterned paper and this Oil Pastel design camouflages the cut I made above the flowers.