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Earlier in the month I saw this wonderful star on Shelli Gardner's blog, which was a gift from an Aussie demonstrator, Felicity Gray. I absolutely loved it, so when I found this tutorial on Jackie Topa's blog, I HAD to have a go at making some... & couldn't stop. Here's a 5 pointed version.
I've used Holiday Thyme designer paper for both stars, but they'd look beautiful with so many others too. 6 panels are needed if you want to alternate patterns with 2 different papers, or use the same paper in reverse, but I like how 5 points look too. I also added a greeting panel to one side of the base, so I could add a Christmas message.
So, that's all for 2008 except for a LOT of thanks from me....To my truly wonderful husband Damien, & beautiful girl, Cara, I feel very blessed to be part of your lives & I love you both so very much . Thanks also to Damo for your endless support of my 'crazy hobby' & messy stamping room (errr, home office - sorry!) ;o)
Love & hugs to all my friends & especially to Ngai, Nette, Wendy & Kellie, for so much love, friendship & encouragement. Love you girls!
To my extended family, thanks so much to everyone for their love, support & a welcome ear through a tough year for us all.
To my Stampin' Up family (up, side & down) Janine, Kellie (again), Leanne, Cathy, Andrea & Lynda. I'm so glad Stampin' Up has brought us together & I'm really looking forward to sharing the journey with you all again next year...& to Sam, you rock girl! - I'm so glad we met & hope to share more fun with you soon.
To all my Stampin' Up! blog buddies (so much talent, so little space...but especially, Karen, Sarah & Chrissie) who inspire me so much, thanks for sharing your ideas & creations. You're all amazing!
Thanks also to everyone who's visited this year & an extra 'mwa' to everyone who's left a comment (or lots....esp Chrissie). I love getting comments & really appreciate your thoughts.
Wow, I didn't think I had so much to say!
So finally, I hope you all have a fun new year celebration & a wonderful year ahead, full of love, happiness & many blessings... and a happy hogmanay to all my Scottish family!
Take care & best wishes & hope to see you here again soon in 2009.
Love Di
Supplies:
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Occasional Greetings
Card/paper: Holiday Thyme designer paper (retired), cranberry crisp (retired), old olive & very vanilla card.
Ink: old olive & cranberry crisp ink pads
Accessories: organdy ribbon (retired)
Choccy Boxes
Tiny Pizza Box
Season of Joy Pizza BoxThis was a larger pizza box filled with more dove choccies decorated with circle scallops.
Holiday Thyme Ink Pad Box
Phew, that was a lot of pics to add! If you'd like more information on anything here, just drop me an e-mail. I'll be back with one more & probably my favourite find of the season.
First, we all made my fave patterned paper gift card folders using some 'Dashing' designer paper & stamps from 'Big Bold Birthday'.
I wanted to show everyone how quick & easy it is to custom make boxes to fit the gift you're giving using a couple of different box making techniques. The box base (15 x 15 x 5cm, or approx 6 x 6 x 2 inches) & gift card are cut from one A4 sheet. You could also make a tag from the leftover, but I needed just a little more for the oversize tag we made. The lid was from part of a 12 x 12 sheet (with plenty of leftovers). If you'd like any other information, or the pattern template for the box & lid, just drop me an e-mail.
This was my favourite of all the projects. It's a little card folder with 3 love note cards & envelopes. Isn't that paper scrumptious...& did you see the square scallop punch? This was also where I got the idea for 
This is a matchbook type card, complete with edge scalloped with the new scallop edge punch. It's such a simple card, but I think the textured cardstock, metal tag & ribbon make it really special.
This is a long tent fold card. We used the flower stem to make the branch for birdie....& I know I'm not usually a big tearer, but I really like it here.
Finally, I made some more love note cards with the leftover scraps. There's something about fiddling about with little bits of paper that I really like. 
The card folder is filled with 4 co-ordinated note sized cards & envelopes (which are just a little smaller than normal size cards). I've continued my pink theme with 'Pick a Petal', & 'Loves Me' designer paper (retired) from last year's Summer Mini. The folder is purely pomegranate card & of course the ribbon is pomegranate double stitched. 
A big thank you to 
Of course, you can always provide my details to your partner, friend or family member too, if you'd like to receive one yourself. 
Of course, I can also make a Christmas themed folder if you'd prefer...note to self -must make some more to post!
It doesn't seem that long since our big day, but when I look at our wedding photos, we look soooo young...so apparently it wasn't yesterday. All I know is that I adore him as much, & probably even more than I did then. It's also a big month for Damien, as it's his birthday....& the big 40 this year too! I'll show you his birthday card another time. Both of these occasions have meant card challenges for me, as I generally struggle a bit with masculine cards. For this card, I decided to use the 'Always' set from the Spring Mini catalogue, teamed with some close to cocoa designer Prints paper. It's a very simple card, but I thought it turned out quite elegant & Damien liked it, so I'm calling that a win. 
While I'm on a river rock roll, I made these 2 cards last Saturday morning with some scraps I had left on my desk after cutting all the SAS kits for my last class. 
They literally took about 5 minutes each & I really liked how they turned out, so I thought you guys might like to see them too (helllooo to those who are still following my irregular posting). The greeting in both is from 'Occasional Greetings' – a must have set IMHO.If you have any questions about anything, just drop me an e-mail.
This the extra simple version – just add some striped 'Dashing' paper, a strip of olive & 'Season of Joy' greeting stamped in real red. I've added some real red brads too, which we didn't do in the class... Sorry, I forgot to take a pic before I added them!
This version has some extra stamped detail, but is still very quick....& I looove that spot & stripe paper! I stamped another greeting in old olive, then punched & cut out some of the elements & mounted them on the real red greeting with dimensionals.
I surprised myself with this one, as the colours are not generally really me, but I do like it. The base is river rock (not that you can see it on the front).The river rock mat has been lightly whacked with the edge of my bone folder, which creates a kind of elegant distressed look....& is very therapeutic. Otherwise it's all very simple....& very easy to mass produce. Like 'Season of Joy, the 'Holiday Harmony' paper is only available until the 30th, so let me know if you'd like to order some.
This is another one I liked, but discounted as a SAS card due to it having too many raised layers & cutting out. 
I liked elements of this one, but I wasn't totally happy overall....I think it may have been the vanilla (?) The colours didn't photograph well either (grr!) Both this & the previous card led me to 
Finally & off the ruby & wasabi theme, is a ballet & brilliant blue card I made at the same time as 
It includes 3 of my current favourite things:
Eagle eyes will probably notice It's the same layout as my last workshop cards, but this time, the 'Blooms' die cuts are definitely saying 'look at moi'. It may be a bit hard to see in the pic, but they're really glossy IRL. I think they look great with the striped paper from the 'Jersey shore' pack & the olive stripe & flower circle from the 'Summer Picnic' pack. The base is pumpkin pie (shock horror - all those 
I didn't emboss the flowers this time – they look soo good a-la-natural in that textured cardstock anyway. Again, I used the 'Summer Picnic' paper, this time with some always artichoke grosgrain ribbon.
This card is all about the large flower, which I made using the emerging colour technique. I first saw this technique demonstrated by the lovely 
If you haven't tried emerging colour yet, have a go with lots of different stamps & colours. It's fun to see the different effects you can create.