anita meade - simple.creative.life

Making Merry Monday #21

Hi again. Has it really been a whole week since I last posted on my blog? I have been kind of pre-occupied this week - I had a little surgery last Wednesday to repair a hernia I've had since I was pregnant with Corey 6 years ago. I thought it was finally time to get it attended to, as it had become more and more troublesome over recent months. All went well, and while I'm a little sore and sorry for myself, I'm improving every day. I'm sure I'll be back to normal very soon. I'm hoping to use my quiet "recovery time" this week for a little creating. I've been working on my crocheted blanket today - it's coming along beautifully but I've run out of black wool, so I'm hoping to pick some up this week so I can finish it off.

This weeks Making Merry Monday card is a bit of a cheat :) I actually made and photographed this one last week, but I kept it up my sleeve as I wasn't sure if I'd be well enough to come up with much after my surgery. Turns out I would have been fine, but I have this one all done, so I'll share it with you today. The photo is a little crooked - sorry about that!

SUPPLIES USED (all Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Riding Hood Red

Ink: Riding Hood Red, River Rock (retired), Always Artichoke

Stamp sets: Spotlight on Christmas, Winter Post, Best Yet

Other: Square Punches.

I really like the "old world" feel of this card - it's really super simple (just cardstock and ink) but it has a lovely charm. Using the Naturals Ivory cardstock instead of Very Vanilla adds to the effect, as it just has a bit more warmth and character to it.

Anyway, that's my Making Merry Monday #21 creation. Hopefully I'll be back to normal programming here on my blog in the days and weeks to come. Thanks for visiting today. Hope your weekend was fun. Looking forward to doing some blog hopping this week - if you've got something you think I'd like to see, please leave me a comment/link. I'm always on the lookout for creative inspiration. Have a great week. Love Anita. xxx

 

Making Merry Monday #20

Hi everyone, I'm back! Didn't know I was away? Well we skipped out of town for a short holiday at Echuca last week. We went along with my Mum & Dad and my gorgeous nephews Jack and Cooper (unfortunately their parents had to work so they couldn't come with us). I will share a few pics of our holiday soon, but first I think we need to get on to this weeks MMM cards -  there are 2 of them!

  

 

These cards use basically the same ingredients, I've just varied the size of the card. Here's what I've used:

SUPPLIES USED (all Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, River Rock (retired)

Stamp sets: Spotlight on Christmas, Merry Merry (retired)

Patterned Paper: Holiday Treasures DSP

Other: Old olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Old Olive button, 1 3/8 " square punch, Large 5 petal flower punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Crystal Effects,

Thanks for visiting today. I'll be back with some more holiday details and pics later on.

Hope your Monday is turning out to be a Merry one! Love Anita. xxx 
 

A scrapbook page.....what a surprise!

Yes, you read the title correctly. This morning I scrapped a page using some photos which I came across while fluffing around in the craft room. I just love the combination of colours in these photos - the pale blue, red and white. I used them as the basis for this layout. I need to get a longer USB cable for my printer since setting up the new desk, so my printer is not connected at the moment. I decided to just handwrite a little bit of journaling in white gel pen. I don't love my handwriting, but it is a part of who I am so I think it's important to use it on my layouts from time to time. Our boys really are our whole world. Having this happy little family is a dream come true for both myself and Danny. We really do thank God every day for blessing us with happy, healthy, gorgeous little boys.

Thanks so much for all your comments on yesterday's post. It is nice to know that other creative folks out there just "get" my passion for making things. While I was quite shocked at the lack of manners from this particular person, I can't say my creative spirit was dented in any way. It would take more that one thoughtless comment to impact upon my need for creative expression. While I don't claim to be the world's greatest artist by any stretch of the imagination, I would never allow anyone or anything to take away the gift of creativity from me.

Thanks so much for visiting my little blog today. I hope your day is a happy one.

                                     Love Anita. xxx

Making Merry Monday #15

Lots of cards to show you today as I had a bit of a "session" on Friday. Pulled out some lovely "Wintergreen DSP" which is now retired and made up a few cards using the coordinating colours - Soft Sky (retired), Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla.

The stamps I've used are : Lovely as a Tree, Many Merry Messages, Circle of Friendship, Winter Post, Baroque Motifs and Short and Sweet. I also made use of my collection of punches, using various sizes of circle as well as the curly label and eyelet border punches. This batch of cards shows how versatile SU! products are and how easy it is to get a coordinated look using their cardstocks, patterned papers, ribbons and inks which all match together perfectly. Too easy! And now my Christmas card stash is up to about 25......a fantastic start on this years "to-make" list for Christmas.

 

       

       

      

 

Thanks for stopping by today. If you have any specific questions about any of these cards, please leave me a comment. Have a very Merry Monday! Love Anita. xxx

Making Merry Monday #5

Hi everyone....it's me  - running late again! This weeks card showcases the completely stunning "Holiday Treasures" DSP - I am just in LUUURRRVE with this patterned paper. The colours in the range are Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Old Olive and Riding Hood Red. Could there be a lovelier combination I ask you?  Here's my card.....

 

And here is a list of what I've used:

INGREDIENTS

Stamp set: Cute and Curly

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Riding Hood Red.

Ink: White Craft ink.

Patterned Paper: Holiday Treasures DSP

Ribbon: Baja Breeze

Other: White embossing powder, scallop border punch, dimensionals, curly label punch

This card is easy, easy, easy to make. Simple layering of stunning papers and elements that all coordinate PEFECTLY (have I mentioned that's what I love so much about Stampin' Up! products?)

While I had the craft ink and embossing powder out I did about 8 of the Merry Christmas labels so I will have them ready to go for other projects. How is your card stash coming along?

That's all for now. Come back and visit again soon for more craftiness. Have a very Merry Monday. Love Anita. xxx

Easter Chick on Chocolate Chip

    I have a fun Easter card to show you today using my new stamp set "A Good Egg".

This time I've combined it with "Kiwi Kiss" cardstock (one of the great new "In Color" family members), "Good Morning Sunshine" DSP, Chocolage Chip ink and 1" double stitched grosgrain ribbon and some jumbo brads. Isn't he cute?! All items on this card are available in the shiny new 2009/2010 Idea Book and Catalogue which looks like this:

                           

    Have you got yours yet? If you'd like one, shoot me off an email and I'll send one out to you for $15 (including postage). There's so much to be inspired about in this new catalogue....I hardly know where to begin!

    Thanks for stopping by today. More Easter goodness for you tomorrow.

                                    See you then. Love Anita. xxx

I made something......

      

..... a big mess! This is what I woke to find on my dining table this morning. It is the result of a card making "binge" I had last night. Many of you may know that I am lucky enough to have my own "craft room", but the desk in there was also piled high with "creative chaos" so I played out on the dining table last night. I made six cards altogether....with a decidely pink theme. Here are three of them. I will show you the other three (which are Easter cards) tomorrow. (I apologise for the "glarey" photos - the morning light was pretty full-on)

               

        

        

    One of the thankyou cards will definitely be going off to my Mum, who just spent four days with us. As mothers do, she felt compelled to help me out around the house (I am not complaining) and did heaps of deep cleaning that I just haven't been well enough to do recently. While I manage to keep a handle on generally day to day tidying etc. (usually) I just haven't had prolonged bouts of energy to do the deeper stuff. A half decent spurt of cleaning from me is usually followed by a half day (or longer) of pain and fatigue. I can't explain how much I appreciate Mum's efforts. It just helps me to feel a little less "out of control" and takes away some of the guilt I place on myself for not being able to keep up with all the stuff around the house.

    The boys just loved having her here. She is such a bundle of energy and she really takes an interest in what they are into. I even dragged her away from the housework for half a day to go and do a little shopping and have coffee and cake - some special mother-daughter time. Here is a pic of my gorgeous Mum with the boys, taken on Monday morning before school.

      

    I can't believe it is only a week until school holidays! Where did first term go? I had better get my thinking cap on and work out a few activities to keep the boys occupied over the two week break. With Easter in the middle I'm sure it will fly by.

    The days are becoming cooler overall, which flares up my pain quite a lot, but Autumn is still my favourite season by far......as the leaves start to turn over the next month or so, I hope to get out with my fabulous camera and capture some of their beauty.

    I am also looking forward to a New Stampin' Up! Catalogue workshop next Friday evening with some of my customers. It is a long time since I have held a workshop due to my health challenges. I am really looking forward to getting together with friends to share the excitement of the new catalogue and make a couple of cute little projects.

    Well, I had best go and tackle the mess on my dining table. It's a bit like a craft hangover having to face up to it in the morning! lol! Thanks for stopping by today. See you again soon.

                                                     Love Anita. xxx

    

Sneek peak of a sweet new stamp set.

    Thought I'd give you a tiny peak of one of the new stamp sets about to be released on April 1st. I made these two birthday cards this morning.

 

    The little slice of cake stamp is from a fun new set called "Greetings Eight" which as you might guess has eight cute stamps for many occasions. I've used Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise and Gable Green on these cards. I've coloured the image using my blender pens and ink pads and I've added some Dazzling Diamonds to the icing and candle. The "happy birthday" background is not a stamp. I just typed "happy birthday" over and over on MSWord, then copied and pasted it over a whole page. I changed the type colour to a shade darker than my cardstock and printed it out. Easy! And I've saved this page so that I can reprint it any time....in any colour to match my cardstock. The other two stamp sets I've used are "Birthday Best"(balloon)  and "A little birthday cheer" (make a wish). I love those coordinating brads in the bottom right corner. You might have noticed that I'm particularly fond of brads, especially in groups of three. I think they add a nice finishing touch.

    Well, that's it for me today. The countdown is on......only 16 more sleeps until the new Idea Book and Catalogue is released. Remember that if you'd like to order something from the retired list, you had better hop to it!

                 Have a great week. Love Anita. xxx

(PS: Thanks for the love after my last post....it is greatly appreciated. xxx)

My little "sports nut".

    I think there will be countless pages of my boys sporting pursuits over the years. This one is super simple.....it is just a 4x6" photo, cardstock, one strip of "Fall Flowers" (Stampin' Up!) patterned paper and my computer. That's it. Nothing fancy here. Just Corey and his bowling ball and a record of how much he loves sport....any sport.  Simple is good.

    And on the theme of simple, that's all for now! Short and sweet today. Have a good one and visit again soon. Love Anita. xxx

Persistence....and the joy of colour coordination.

    This page doesn't have a title, but if it did, it would be called "Persistence". I love this quote which I found on the website of the wonderful Stacy Julian. As soon as I saw it I remembered the photos I took of my boys blowing bubbles way back in July 2005.

  

    This page didn't actually start with the story. I've been thinking lately that I have lots of stamps, that sit on my shelf unused. It occurred to me that using my stamps I could create my own custom "patterened paper". And the beauty of Stampin' Up! is that I can use ink colours that PERFECTLY coordinate with my SU! cardstock colours etc. Ingenious! Why didn't this occur to me before? I simply stamped an entire A4 sheet of Very Vanilla Cardstock using my "In the Spotlight" stamp set. Because I only used a portion of the sheet for this layout, I can now make a card or two, or even another layout using the "leftover" bits. The whole coordinating colours idea was one of the things that attracted me to Stampin' Up! in the first place. It is so EASY to get a perfectly coordinated layout, right down to the ribbons, buttons, brads and other embellishments.

    So now that I've had this revelation, look forward to some more examples of "Anita Meade Custom Patterned Paper" coming up in the near future.......the possibilities are endless!

                   Thanks for visiting! Love Anita. xxx