Here comes 2009

Wow. It's hard to believe it's the last day of 2008. This year has certainly been an interesting one for the Murray family - especially the last few months - but we wouldn't have it any other way.




I hope your Christmas was filled with love and laughter. We had a wonderful day with friends of ours that are moving tomorrow :-( The kids had a great time, the food was wonderful and we were with people we love (even though our families were on the other side of the country).


On this last day of the year, I thought I would share my contribution to the recent Summer Mini swap I was involved with. Once again, my apologies to the girls for being late, but I will fit too much onto my plate and decide to travel all around the country at short notice!

When I saw the Summer Mini Ocean Commotion caught my eye and I just had to use it for this swap. I had planned what I was going to do during a rather dry lecture at Uni, but this is not very much like I'd planned at all. I drew inspiration for the colours from the gorgeous Bali Breeze DSP, which also features. I stamped the fish in Purely Pomogranate on Whisper White, masked it and stamped off the Old Olive seaweed once before stamping over the fish. This was mounted on Old Olive and finished off with a bit of Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon and a couple of Styled Silver brads. This was all mounted with dimensionals on the torn DSP which was layered into Purely Pomegranate card. The greeting from Short & Sweet was stamped in Whisper White.

I am now heading off to help finish clean a house - it means our friends are one step closer to leaving though.

Wishing you all a festive New Years Eve and may 2009 bring you all you wish for.

Season's Greetings 2008

Merry Christmas to you!

As I write this, we are on floodwatch (which happens quite regularly through the Wet Season), but the river has been rising quite quickly today (was about 10m at the Railway Bridge at 4pm), there is a lot of rain around and A LOT of rain in the catchment area for the Katherine River. It looks like we're in for a wet Christmas - I'm just hoping not too wet! I have too much stuff to move up if we flood!

Despite my travels at prime Christmas card making time this year, I still wanted to make our cards, with a photo of Luana, to send people down South. It's just a nice way for everyone who we live so far away from to see our gorgeous girl (at least once a year). I thought I was all organised this year - I'd gone on-line to see the Christmas t-shirt I wanted to buy Luana, I'd ordered the additional card stock, and I'd taken down the stamp sets and card stock to Adelaide so I could start making them while we were down there. BUT, every time I went into the shop to buy the t-shirt, it hadn't arrived yet.... but the lovely sales lady showed me another VERY cute one which I just couldn't leave there, but didn't fit with my colour scheme. So, I just had to change it! Hence, part of the delay as I had to order different card stock and I didn't have any of the colour ink pads with me in the new colours..... Here's the result - hope it was worth the wait!

This didn't photograph as well as I hoped and I really do love it IRL. I chose Purely Pomegranate, Tempting Turquoise and silver to coordinate with Luana's t-shirt and used stamps from Season of Joy (retired) and Many Merry Messages (which is 20% off with a $20 order until Dec 31st). The greeting is silver embossed and looks so much better IRL. Very simple, but from the heart.

Luana always likes to try and help me stamp too, so one day I let her go her hardest for cards for her grandparents.

For Nana

For Nanny and Popsy

Both use Real Red and Glorious Green, and Luana used Season of Joy for the feature panels. I used gold cord (retired) for Paul's Mums. Mum and Dad's has noel from Many Merry Messages gold embossed, I used the new scallop edge punch for a bit of interest and added some red grosgrain underneath.

I hope your Christmas weekend is filled with love and laughter.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Adelaide Regionals 2008

I was really lucky that my latest trip to Adelaide coincided with Regionals - and to think I was going to head down a week later!! As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a fantastic day. I learned so much, met some truly talented people and was thoroughly inspired! If you ever get the opportunity, attend one of these sessions, and take heaps of swaps!!

Here are the 2 swaps I contributed:

This one was actually taken from a farewell card I made for friends leaving the Territory. It uses Sahara Sand and Really Rust cardstock, and Apple Cider DSP (Spring Mini - retired). The crocodile from Wild About You (what else for the Top End?!) and the greeting from Sweet Serendipity (Spring Mini - retired) are stamped in Wild Wasabi, with the greeting stamped on the round tab punch out. Quite simple, but please remind me not to fussy cut swaps again, especially when I'm travelling across the country while completing them!! Lori from SU! in the USA quite liked this one!

I based this one on the photo board I made for Paul's birthday in October - I liked the diamonds! Once again quite simple (but I was quite happy for that when I was finishing them at 1am after travelling all day!). I used Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock, with Certainly Celery Print DSP (Iran out of Chocolate Chip though and had to improvise! I used DSP swiped heavily with Chocolate Chip ink for the middle panel on a few....). The greeting and flowers are from Short & Sweet (I can't figure out know why it took me so long to get that set!) all stamped in Chocolate Chip and finished with Certainly Celery brads. The middle diamond was attached with dimensionals.

There were so many gorgeous swaps I received but I thought I would share my favourite 5 with you. From top left: Nicole Derendorf (http://stampingdownunder.wordpress.com/), Lorrae Weiss, Kari Hughes (http://www.karigail.wordpress.com/), the lady who made this cute little owl didn't put her name on it but it's just so cute!, Deb Darby.

Thank you to everyone who swapped with me!!

And here are the projects we made. They all use the new Live Your Dream stamp set, and a combination of Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava (inlcuding the new Afternoon Tea DSP). Not bad for a couple of hours!!

Thanks Card

Thanks Matchbook Card

Dreams 6"x6" Scrapbook Page (I put the photo in after I got home)

Thanks Card Folder

Thanks Card Folder Love Notes with lined envelopes

A fantastic day! Thank you Stampin' Up! for bringing Regionals to SA!!

KWernerDesign Colour Inspiration #35

I love to see what inspiration Kristina comes up with each week, and also seeing other people's entries. I have finally found the time to be able to make an entry for her latest challenge, but am not sure if I'll be able to get it in on time (I can never remember how far behind the USA is to us).... Here's this weeks inspiration

We don't have Baja Breeze here yet, so I substituted the retired Cool Caribbean. As ANOTHER friend has had a baby (I need to be careful of the company I keep I think!! No pitter patter of little feet in our house any time soon), I thought these colours would be nice for a welcome card. Here's what I came up with:

I used Sanded to add a bit of texture to the card base, Nursery Necessities provided the cute little elephant, the phrases and the caribbean stars, and the background stars in the cut out is from Season of Joy (from the finished Spring Mini; I love how you can use seasonal stamps all year round!). Cooper's name is created with the retired Pure and Simple Upper Alphabet. I thought the scalloping (using the fantastic new scallop punch) added a bit of softness to the card. I had to use some creative thinking to cut out the circle as I used the round tab punch, but it really doesn't like punching through more than 2 layers. A suggestion, if you would like to try this, punch out the circle on the base card first, then layer your strips, then cut them out with a craft knife! The last little extra I included was clear embossing the caribbean elephant and attaching him with Dimensionals.

This little elephant will be in the post today on his way down to meet little Cooper - congrats Kel!! I'm looking forward to meeting your little man soon!!

Zarna's Blog Candy

I found Zarna's blog through her entries into Makeesha's challenges - in fact, our styles are scarily similar!! It's her birthday this month (and mine too - could that be a reason for the scary coincidences?) and she's giving away the presents.
Check out her awesome blog at:
http://www.zarnasworld.blogspot.com/

Good luck and Happy Birthday Zarna!!

I'm Back!!

My apologies to those who have been checking in on me and finding nothing new for the past month or so. I spent some time down South and a couple days after coming back, we went on a family get away to Kununurra for a few days. I had my camera the whole time, but nothing to download photos with, and only had limited access to computers.

Anyways, in SA I was fortunate to attend Regionals. What a great day! I will post the cards I made for swaps and what we made on the day later when I have had time to photograph them all. I was truly inspired and the day reinforced why I love what I do! It was fabulous to meet some very talented ladies, and another Territorian too (Hi Christine!!!) - there were only 2 of us!

While away, I also attended the final week of Uni for my diabetes course (1 more assignment to go....), celebrated my sisters engagement, found all of our dresses for the wedding (NOT the colours she originally picked mind you, so I need to re-think what to do for the wedding card!), spent some wonderful time with family and friends and took Luana to The Wiggles concert (I'll post photos later). I did manage to fit some stamping in and held a workshop (Hi Suze, Jude and Mabel), but haven't photographed those cards yet. It was a busy few weeks. To top off this trip, the Murray's decided to head over to Kununurra for the weekend just gone. We had a lovely time; I just love the stunning environment we have up here, especially the boabs in the Kimberley, and everything we are able to experience. I'll post some photos later too.

What a month!!

Ok. I've been working on our Christmas cards and some swaps too for the Happy Stampers. I'm still working on the Summer Mini one (sorry guys, have been trying to find the time), but here's my Christmas contribution.

I used the fabulous Season of Joy stamp set, in Tempting Turquoise and River Rock. My Whisper White ink pad isn't brilliant at the moment, so 'Merry Christmas' is embossed in white. The star has Dazzling Diamonds for a bit of bling, and I pierced all the 'dots' on the Christmas tree and swirls. I used dimensionals to attached the tree. I'm also making a similar version of this (using Soft Sky instead of River Rock and different orientation) for my fellow volunteers, host families and students involved with AFS Katherine.

I can't believe there's only 10 days to go!!!

Butterfly Award - Thanks Leah!!

One time when I was able to access a computer while I was away, I was pleasantly surprised to find Leah had awarded me a Butterfly Award - thank you!! If you haven't already, check out Leah's blog - it's amazing (I love receiving your swaps Leah - my Summer Mini one is on the way) and she has a great monthly inspiration challenge.

Part of receveing the award is to forward this onto 10 other blogs. Most of the other blogs I visit have been awarded this in the past and they are all wonderful, but may I suggest you check out:

Kylie http://www.kyliestampinstuff.blogspot.com/

Nat http://www.happydaks.blogspot.com/

Check them out!!