the "twine" manuscript

hi there and greetings from a windy wintery day here in switzerland,

todays my day at the twinery and my project was something that started out as a christmas decoration and ended up...well as a page of music!

Whilst perusing the christmas decorations at a local department store i came across a Mozart display with these amazingly glittery treble clefs.. i knew immediately that they would look super cool on a card and made this hot pink diva version initially...

I really loved the pink black combination of this card but i bought four of the treble clefs and wanted to make an even classier version! I had a light bulb moment where i envsioned the note on a piece of manuscript paper...well not just any old piece of manuscript paper of course ...Queue: Charcoal Twine!

I created the paper from twine by simply cutting similar lengths and attaching them on the back of the white card at either side and fiddling a little on the front side to make them evenly spaced.

once i had finished the paper i attached the clef on top, blinged it up with a rhinestone brad and glued the whole project to a black card to make it pop even more..the end product was this....

any guesses as to the actual sheet of  MUSIC its lying on????

if you guessed i am an ABBA fan...you were right! In the spirit of the season it should probably be a christmas tune but they will be all too plentiful in the coming days so ABBA it is :-)

I hope you enjoyed my little project as it is indeed my last on the Twinery Design Team. I opted not to reapply for the team next year although i have thoroughly enjoyed my time with them. It goes without saying, the twine is super cool to work with and the colour selection is second to none but i wanted to concentrate on some projects closer to home and I look forward to seeing a dynamic 2012 Twinery Team very soon!

Thanks for stopping by today!

The Twinery and Authentique Blog Hop...

welcomes you! If you came here from Emily Lanham's blog you are right on track.

I hope you are enjoying the hopping as much as i did playing with the gorgeous Authentique and Twinery products. They have the most amazing colour combinations in the Authentique lines so it was hard to choose just one to scrapbook with let alone matching the great Twinery twine selection up to them - so many awesome combinations are possible when these two fun companies come together..nonetheless i managed to narrow it all down and made the following page.... but first a little background to it..

I left New Zealand 16 years ago with a young and single, excited and positive outlook to what might await me in Europe..well Frankfurt to be exact which was my first port of call, so to speak...turns out i was there for five years although my intention was three weeks or so and then make my way round Europe.. one never knows what tomorrow may bring, right? So rolling it into a short story - flew to Germany, met and married future (Swiss) husband, son #1, moved to Switzerland, son #2 = 16 years! and here i am...
As you can imagine my "excited, positive" outlook back in 1995, took a hammering here and there and although pretty much still in tact i do have the odd day where my thoughts wander back to those last words of wisdom from my Dad... (as i was about to step on the first flight in a total of 24 hours flying) his words were - "don't forget - home will always be here for you whenever you want to return". Those words were comforting then and many moons later they still make me smile. Having now had children of my own though i realise how he must have felt as he watched me go... at the time i remember trying to make myself focus on what the world held for me rather than what i was leaving behind..as a parent i am sure it would, and will be, much more difficult??! I love my Dad for being so supportive at that particular moment - those few words gave me strength and courage as i took the first step of that 'big' journey. I just hope that I too, can be together enough to pass those exact same sentiments on when the day comes for my little darlings to spread their wings! I trust that's still a long time away, i might add, even though that old cliche..they grow right before your very eyes.. kind of rings true. In any case, one fine day i want them to know...home will always be here for them.

i was so glad to get these feelings down on paper together with this photo taken a couple of years back of  my Dad and me. The vintage feel of the Authentique papers in soft yellows and greys were just what i needed to portray my thoughts and the stone twine matched perfectly with them. Lemondrop or Pink Sorbet would also have done the trick but i wanted a more subtle look to coincide with my quiet thoughts of home - so stone was indeed the lucky one!! Rather than leaving it loose, I pulled the twine tight and stapled it at either end to remind me of the strength my Dad gave me...

But enough deep and meaningful....moving right along, as I mentioned above i couldnt resist all of the beautiful Authentique collections so in honour of the big day coming up in less than six weeks!!! (scary thought) i cut up a few more papers and made this layout "also about home" when we were lucky enough to be back in New Zealand for a white oops i mean, warm Christmas. I tied the whole layout up like a parcel with none other than.... maraschino twine of course and it was all done and ready to pop under the tree. LOL!

Last but not least, be sure to leave a comment here to go into the draw to win some goodies..

The Twinery will be giving away a 'Colorful Bunch Sampler Pack' (retail value $20)

and Authentique will be offering a prize package of the same value.

The next stop on the blog hop is Heather Conklin - many thanks for stopping in today and i wish you much inspiration throughout the remainder of the Authentique and Twinery  blog hop.

Stamps of Life and the Twinery Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome -

Are you ready for some fun?

The {Stamps} of Life and The Twinery Design Teams are playing together for this hop!

 If you came here from Beverley Sizemore's blog you are right on track.

I was priveleged to be able to design with a fun Christmas set of stamps called Christmas2Build from Stamps of Life. The details in these stamps are just beautiful and i loved the font that the sentiments came in as well.

I have been wanting to scrap our tradition of placing boots at the door, forever..well not just any old boots of course :-) they have to be red and glittery!! subsequently when i saw the "boots" included in this stamp set it was the perfect opportunity to do that. i was equally delighted to find that the teeny tiny snowman also fitted right inside the cuff of the boot making a great little decoration. The Merry Christmas stamp filled the gap across the top of my page like a glove or should i say like a mitten LOL! Last but not least i stamped a little border of snowflakes along the bottom for my title to rest on. I left the cappuccino twine simply  flowing across the stamps to give the illusion of a banner. i think it makes the sweetest addition, dont you?

Loved the snowflakes so much I couldnt resist just stamping a couple of extra little ones on these tags.

I picked up the ribbon at a local craft fair and thought its cuteness factor was right up there with these little stamps so put the two together! They rock, right? LOL. Not to mention the sentiments.. Little Red Riding Hood saying - Merry Christmas from our "woods" to yours. The knights in shining amour saying - Merry Christmas from our "castle" to yours and the pirates saying - Merry Christmas from our "ship" to yours :-) and of course the finshing touch is the Twinery twine in coordinating stone, maraschino and cappuccino.

As you make your way through the hop make sure you comment on each and every post. There will be 2 prize winners chosen randomly among the blogs:

One winner will win 2 stamp sets  (winners choice) valued at $12.95 -total retail value: $26.90 per prize! from The {Stamps} of Life.

&

One winner will win the Ultimate Color Sampler Pack ($25 value!) from The Twinery!!!

The prize winners will be announced on The {Stamps}of Life and The Twinery Blogs on Wednesday November 16th.

Thanks so much for coming by today and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog hop - your next stop is Tami Mayberry!

The Twinery gets Sweet and Sassy!

   

Welcome to the Twinery/Sweet and Sassy Stamps blog hop. If you came here from Julia Aston's blog you are right on track. These two companies are such a great team together as you will see from all the inspiration along the hop. More importantly there will be TWO prizes awarded for those who leave comments on all participating blogs.

The Twinery will give away to one winner:

One Ultimate Color Sampler Pack (retail value $25)

Sweet & Sassy Stamps will give away to one winner:

One Season of Change Stamp & Die Set (retail value $28)

I was lucky enough to receive the Seeing Spots stamp set from Sweet and Sassy and immediately had all sorts of ideas flowing especially as the set includes super sweet sentiments such as "for my friend" - i thought that was delightful and its in the tiniest font which adds huge points to its charm factor. I just had to incorporate that in my project somehow.

The second line of thought came to me rather unexpectedly as i was strolling the city of Zurich last week and came across a toy store closing down. Being the recycling/obsessed collector type that i am i promptly wandered in. I was of course amongst several other pushy "collectors" who were frantically shuffling through boxes at the very back of the store. As i got closer i realised said boxes were full of stationery! To cut a long story short i discovered lots of small red paper bags and several more slightly larger green bags. Hello Christmas i thought to myself!!

So even though the stamp set has no hint of Christmas i went right ahead and used them as my background on the bags..the great thing is there are nine different spot designs so there are unlimited themes you could use them for. 

In a nutshell that is the story of how these elements became super smart christmas cookie bags!

I stamped a mixture of the 'spots' with Versafine Black Onyx on each of the small bags and layered the tiny stockings on top. The maraschino twine was a no-brainer - there aint no Christmas without that colour twine - it should be a staple in everyones collection especially with the "season" almost upon us. Last but not least i stamped the adorable "for my friend" at the top of each bag and all i need now is to bake some cookies.

Thanks so much for coming by today and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog hop - your next stop is Kim Schofield! The deadline to leave comments is 11:59 EST, Saturday Oct 22nd. Winners will be announced on the respective company blogs, Sunday Oct 23rd. Dont forget you have to leave comments on ALL blogs on the hop.

Have fun and good luck for the draw, "my friend"!!! (i just couldnt resist stamping a couple more times with this sentiment before i slipped it back into its packet lol.)

Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop

“I am so glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile. If you came here from Tifany deGough’s blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s blog and take your time. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes!”

The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae.  You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more.  What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child.  It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth  replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out.  But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000. Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight! Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done. It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon. If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click.  Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.”


I wanted to share with you today a very simple idea that my son initiated actually. It seems to be the birthday season in his class at the moment and he is celebrating someones birthday almost every week. In his vast 9 years of birthday party experience??! he told me he wanted a birthday tag that he could just write the persons name on and go - not unlike "nutella and go"which is what he happened to have in his other hand at the time. Being the accomodating Mami that i am i decided to make his wish come true and came up with this clean and simple tag...well bunch of tags actually..his go-to stack shall we say.

(Stamp: Stampin Up, Ink: Versamark)

I simply printed the sentiment on my computer and stamped the fun bunch of kids underneath. I love the pink/brown combo so blossom and cappuccino Twinery twine was a no-brainer. I decided he should also at least write his own name and left a huge blank at the top for him to creatively draw the recipients name. The latter may not quite gel with my son's rather more minimalistic approach but at least i left him a suitable space should the mood arise one fine day.

“I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop!  The next stop is Grace Hester’s blog.  Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend”

JULIE RANAE





of pink and green with a dash of cupcake!

a friends daughter had her birthday party recently and i was honoured to be asked to provide the table settings and goodie bags - all with a cupcake theme.

She supplied me with the serviettes and i worked around those... into glassine bags they went wrapped around a pink fork with each guests name on the negative of a cupcake tag - pink of course... (read on for where the "positive" cupcake landed lol!)

the little cupcakes in the bottom corner of this photo (to the left) are actually erasers... sooo cute!



These were what went into the favour bags.. as they were soo tiny i decided to "fatten" them up a little.. and made a "tissue" bag first..

i added some pink and green rafia "inside and out" to enhance my colour combo and then stamped on more glassine bags with an inkadinkadoo cupcake stamp and some yummy Jenny Bowlin ink.. love the stick candy colour and it was a perfect match.. the finishing touch was the "positive" pink cupcake punched from a fiskars squeeze punch... so those sweet little erasers ended up wayyy bigger than they actually were... but oh so pretty dont you think?

The party was held at a ceramic studio and each girl got to paint a ceramic cupcake.. a week or so later when they had been fired i made thank you tags to dolly up the plain brown bags their completed cupcake was delivered to them in.... used a touch of Echo Park Country Drive on these with a dash of blossom twine from the Twinery!

 i need to find another supply of glassine bags... theyre my current - go to!! lol.

and the lucky person is...

before i spill the beans and tell you who the very lucky person that won the Ultimate Sampler Twine pack is - i just wanted to say, in the fineprint below, i mentioned that i was expecting a "parcel" from Canada yesterday and i am delighted to report that 'said' parcel landed safely and is now happily installed back amongst us.. my DH has been away on business for a couple of weeks and was terribly missed by young and not so young alike!! Let me just say, it was such a nice feeling to be able to set the table for FOUR again last night...

anyway back to business - thank you soo much for all your wonderful comments and praise.. i was made up by the response to the Twinery blog hop! The person who will be able to twine happily away very shortly is.... Vanessa!!

Your card's really cute, love the little canvas dress. I don't have any twine YET {{{GASP!!!}}}, but I am loving grey lately so I'd have to say stone. :)

well in a few days you will indeed have ALL 14 colours of Twinery twine Vanessa - congratulations!!