A Fun Blog Challenge

I really should be writing my assignment, but I am SO uninspired by this one... Anyways, Sharon has tagged me in a fun blog challenge, so I thought I'd play along while I (supposedly!!) have the time.

The challenge was to go into your My Pictures folder, select the 6th folder and then the 6th photo within that folder. You are then to post that photo on your blog and give the story behind it. Now, my 6th folder is my Luana folder and that has many subfolders, so I'm actually going to post 2 photos. This first one is the 6th folder or image in my Luana folder:

This photo was taken with Paul's phone when Luana was almost 8 months old sitting on our bed in an outfit her godmother gave her when she was born. I think he was just mucking around with the phone, and she's just TOO cute!!

And this photo is the 6th photo in the 1st subfolder in the 1st subfolder (yes, my folder system does go to up to 5 levels!!):

This photo of my darling was taken when she was exactly 2 weeks old (as close as possible to the minute), sleeping soundly in my arms. I actually think I took this photo myself reaching out (hence the slightly awkward position Luana is in). We have taken at least one photo of her every day since she was born, which is something that was important to me as we live so far away from family, little ones change and grow WAY too quickly and we have had too many loved ones pass away only to find no-one has a decent, recent photo of them.

So there you go, another glimpse into Natasha's world. I am supposed to pass this challenge onto 6 other people:

1. Kylie A
2. Nat (has already played, but check out her entry)
3. Leah
4. Spice (non-stamping)
5. Kristy
6. Zarna

I only know some of these talented ladies via their wonderful blogs, so thanks in advance!

Red, Green and Yellow again...

Even though my 'Cute' page fit the bill for Kristina's latest colour challenge (THANK YOU for all your fabulous comments BTW :-) ) I still wanted to make what I had in my head - and I may just get it in on time. Mel's latest challenge is also to make a card with a one sheet wonder, so I thought I'd do both. I actually made 3 cards from the one piece of watercolour paper, so here they are:

I kept to Kristina's colours of Real Red, Green Galore, So Saffron, Basic Black and Whisper White for these. I stamped the solid impressions of Petals Prints onto watercolour paper and spritzed it with water (this was my second attempt!), then stamped the outline stamps in Staz On. I tried really hard to use as many scraps as I could (those little pieces of paper breed, I'm sure!). A liitle bit of black grosgrain ribbon finished the first card, and a bit of piercing the second. The greetings come from: A Little Birthday Cheer, Congrats (Sale A Bration set - contact me if you would like to know how to get this for free) and A Perfect Day rub on (retired).

As I mentioned, this was my second attempt at spritzing... Both Paul and his mate preferred the second one!! Here's what I did with my first:

I actually used this attempt to make a card for Nerine's latest layout challenge. As you can see, I was a bit more heavy handed with spritzing this time, but I think it looks ok. I also stamped the outline images in the coordinating colours. Red grosgrain ribbon and styled silver hodgpodge hardware finished this card, as well as some chunky glitter in the middle of the flowers. Kind comes from Baroque Motifs.

Thanks again for your great challenges! I had a fun time playing with these last night. Take your pick!

Colour Coincidence

While I was lying in bed last night trying to figure out what to do for Kristina's latest colour inspiration, it dawned on me that one of the calendar pages I recently made fit the bill - almost; I used Yoyo Yellow instead of So Saffron. Here's the inspiration:

I adore the bright colours! Here's the page I had made:

This would have to be one of my favourite photos of Luana ever. Not only is she wearing a super-cute toucan dress, but she is going through a phase of saying 'cheese' for the camera and screwing up her nose at the same time. I thought the narrow photo suited a pseudo-film theme, hence the spiral punching. Once again, this is pretty self explanatory, but I used the retired Summer Picnic DSP, Big Deal Alphabet and the little flower is from Live Your Dream. If you would like more details, let me know.

I hope this fits the bill Kristina! I am going to have a play with a card as well, but not sure if I'll get it up on time - I REALLY need to write an assignment...

Makeesha's Colour Challenge #3

I'm not sure if I'm going to get this in on time this week (we've had unexpected visitors arrive tonight - lovely surprise!). Makeesha's latest challenge was to use Ruby Red, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. I still hadn't done a title page for Paul's calendar, so this was the solution:

It's pretty self explanatory, but I used Sanded background stamp and the retired hostess set Love It for the panel.

Thanks for another great challenge Keesh! I might be using these colours for Paul's Valentine's Day card.

Must go and be social now...

Wow! Thanks Mel!

I was a bit chuffed when I visited Mel's blog tonight to find I had won her latest beach challenge! Thank you! Sorry if you have visited me and haven't been able to find my entry - I've been very busy with a sick little one (she's better now) and organising a big health promotion event for work next week, so I quickly e-mailed Mel my entry. Here 'tis


I was a bit lucky when Mel set this challenge as I had this photo sitting on the table just waiting to be made into another page for Paul's calendar. My biggest challenge was making sure I used all current material (so the Cool Caribbean and Tidy Alphabet had to be put aside) to meet Mel's criteria.
The base is Soft Sky and I tore Blue Bayou and Sahara Sand to match in with the breaking waves at the top and the sands edge at the bottom. I wheeled the Sahara Sand in Sandy Shells and roughed the torn edge just a bit more. 'Beach' was stamped using Best Friend Upper Alphabet and Soft Sky and each of the letters were randomly cut out, edged with Sahara Sand and attached with dimensionals. A little bit of Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon, a couple of Blue Bayou shells from the wheel and brads and a coil from Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware finished the page.

I'm still relatively new to scrapboooking (I've only actually completed 4 12x12" pages) and getting used to not mounting everything on background card, so thanks for the vote of confidence Mel!!

On Time This Week

This week I'm a tad more organised than last week and am actually getting to post my entries for Nerine's layout challenge before the cut off date! Small wonders!

I really liked this layout and thought it would be perfect for my Grandad's birthday card (I know male cards are hard, but I find cards for elderly males REALLY hard... any inspiration is greatly appreciated).

I wasn't convinced about the whole Boho Western theme in the IB&C, but I thought the Outlaw DSP could come in handy for those dreaded male cards so included it on my last order. I really do quite like it, hence the inclusion on Grandad's card. I've fussy cut a 'circle' from one of the papers, and the greeting is from the retired hostess set Riveting - the star suited the Western theme. To soften the Very Vanilla card I sponged the edges in Creamy Caramel.

I also included a tin of Flower Fusion felt flowers on that last order - another product I wasn't too sure about, but now LOVE . I was playing with a bit of layering of the different flowers and thought I just have to make a card with these colours (ie Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive) - Nerine's layout was the obvious choice.

This would have to be my favourite card that I have made lately (I've felt a bit off the ball). The DSP is Bali Breeze and I used the fantastic new scallop edge punch for the Rose Red. The greeting at the bottom is from Hidden Garden rub ons and I used a silver brad to hold the flowers together. Not a stamp to be seen! Don't you just love the buzz you get from making something you're really happy with?!

KWernerDesign Colour Inspiration #38 for Aleiah

A week seems to come around rather quickly at the moment and it's time again for Kristina's latest challenge. A former work colleague's partner had a gorgeous little girl this week (only 48cm and 6lb 6oz - she's tiny!!) and I thought Kristina's latest colour inspiration could work for a baby girl card:

I've never been a huge fan of Pumpkin Pie, but with it featuring so much in colour inspirations lately, I must say it's growing on me! So much so I decided to use it for the card base. I have substituted Rose Red for Ruby Red to make it just a little more baby girlish too.

This has turned out a bit different than what I had in my head, but I think that's because Aleiah ended up being longer than I thought and I changed the profile of the card to make it fit better. Her parents loved it though, which is the main thing.

I kissed the elephant from Wild About You with Paisley in both Pumpkin Pie and Pretty in Pink. The elephant is mounted on Whisper White sponged with Pretty in Pink, which was layered on Pretty in Pink. Aleiah uses Best Friends Upper Alphabet (loving this alphabet at the moment!) on Whisper White layered on Pretty in Pink as well. I have used the Pretty in Pink marker to faux pierce the edge and I attached a bit of grosgrain ribbon with a brad, both Pretty in Pink. Both the panels were mounted on Rose Red Prints DSP which had been mounted on Pretty in Pink and then Pumpkin Pie card base. The gorgeous felt fusion flowers and Pretty in Pink brads help to finish it all off.

Aleiah is such a beautiful little girl - welcome to the world darling!

Makeesha's Sketch and Leah's Colours

Two other very talented stampers whose challenges I like to try and participate in are Makeesha and Leah - some of them certainly make me think. The latest challenges from these girls are a sketch challenge from Makeesha

and colour inspiration from Leah

I didn't even realise this was animated until just now!! The colours Leah suggested were Basic Black, Whisper White, Going Grey and More Mustard plus extras Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore and/or Yoyo Yellow.

Here's what I came up with for both challenges:

I made this with a special 6 year old boy in mind. I tried to get the whole astronaut crocodile image across, but don't know if it really worked.... The colours are pretty self explanatory; I used Going Grey pastels for the detail of the moon surface. The stars come from In the Stars in the Summer Mini - the white stars are white embossed, and the crocodile is of course from Wild About You. The 'Happy Birthday' rub on is out of A Perfect Day from the retired Spring Mini and the crocodile's helmet was created using the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches.

Happy Birthday Taz!!!

I liked Keesh's sketch so much, I used it to create this card for a crayon resist workshop on Monday night (hi girls!!):

I thought it may be a bit PINK, but the girls loved it! I've kept to the ultimate girly colour combo of Pink Passion and Pixie Pink with Whisper White for a base and Basic Black for accents. I used Sanded background for the card base and crayon resist on the main butterfly from Bold Butterfly, sponging with Pixie Pink (I did try braying but it was way too heavy for this card). The greeting is from Short & Sweet and I used a Pink Passion marker to ink just 'wish'. This was paired with the flower from Bold Butterfly in Pixie Pink. The Flitting By jumbo wheel in Pixie Pink provided the vertical panel and it was all finished with some black grosgrain ribbon and a ribbon slider from Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware.

Keep those challenges coming!!

Mel and Nerine's First Challenges for 2009

As many of you know, Mel sets weekly challenges on her blog which I conscientiously try to participate in (except for when I'm on the other side of the country). This year, another sister stamper of mine, Nerine, is also setting weekly challenges which I am alos going to do my absolute best to have a go with too.

Nerine's first challenge was a sketch. I had the card made in time, but haven't been able to get onto here to post it and she has already set the next challenge... oh well. Here's my effort:

I went back to the good ol' colour wheel for this combo - I'm trying to use colours I tend to forget about! The base is Ballet Blue, with a strip of Creamy Caramel which has been pierced along the top edge, stamped in Creamy Caramel with the little flowers from Live Your Dream, and finished with a bit of red gingham ribbon (something else I don't tend to use a lot of). The main image from Live Your Dream is stamped with Always Artichoke on Very Vanilla and the flowers are Real Red, fussy cut and then attached with Aged Brass brads. I lightly sponged the edges of the Vanilla with Artichoke, trimmed the corners with the corner rounder and ran all the edges along the ink pad for a bit of definition. The greeting at the bottom is from A Little Birthday Cheer with the dots being provided by In The Spotlight.

I've changed my mind about my mother-in-law's birthday card, and this one is now going to make it way down to her!

Just to show you something completely different now, here's what I came up with for Mel's 'doozy' of a first challenge:

Apologies for the poor quality photo - it was quite overcast this weekend and this was the pick of the bunch.

Mel usually sets a colour OR technique OR accessory challenge but this week she laid all three on the table. A gorgeous photo of an orchid was her colour inspiration and she pulled the colours Orchid Opulence, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. We were required to use the kissing technique and either Stampin' Dimensionals or pop-up glue dots.

I kissed the Baroque background stamped with Paisley in Barely Banana and stamped this on the Whisper White for the background (didn't turn out too badly I thought!). I pierced the 'exposed' White areas for a bit more interest and mounted the panel on Orchid Opulence and then on a Certainly Celery card base. The feature stamp was from Baroque Motifs stamped in Celery with the little middle bit in Orchid, with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds in the middle and attached with dimensional. This was mounted on Barely Banana and the with dimensionals on a rectangle of Orchid Opulence with the bottom torn. Make a Wish is from A Little Birthday Cheer and white embossed to make it really stand out. The final part is a small piece of celery ribbon.

I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out.

Thanks for the challenges girls, I look forward to what you come up with in the future!

KWernerDesign Colour Inspiration #37

I am in the process of making 6x6 calendars for this year (I really should have started them before the week before Christmas) and am getting closer to finishing - yay! Kristina's latest colour challenge helped my incredibly with one of the pages for Paul's calendar.

Here's her inspiration:

Here's my page:

We don't have many photos taken together these days, and generally the ones we do are the 'hold your arm out and take it yourself' shot - like this one - which really don't allow you to trim too much. I used Old Olive for the base, substituted Cool Caribbean for Baja Breeze (I'm really looking forward to Baja Breeze coming over here) which I used for Paul's name with Tidy Alphabet (retired) and a couple of the flowers from Eastern Blooms in the new Summer Mini (both stamped on the Whisper White). I also used some Cool Caribbean rickrack from the retired Flirty ribbon set. Pumpkin Pie was represented by my name, more flowers and some Spring Break DSP. I stamped the branch image from Eastern Blooms in Chocolate Chip directly onto the base, and attached the cut out flowers with dimensionals on top.

I'm really happy with how this turned out and Paul likes it too - I wasn't going to show him until I'd finished his calendar but I couldn't help myself. It's a but funny seeing a photo of myself without specs too!!

Leah has also made a gorgeous card with these colours - check it out at http://stampinwithleah.blogspot.com/

I have some more blog challenges to post in the next couple of days so stay tuned!

Groovy Guava and Wild Wasabi Blitz

While I was down South, I managed to get a bit of stamping done while I was on the farm that I haven't posted for you all yet. I had limited supplies that I took with me, and Mum's stash, but I really wanted to use Groovy Guava card as much as possible because I'd just ordered a pack, then changed the colour scheme of my Christmas cards...

Both these cards use Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi and Whisper White card with Groovy Guava, Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip ink. The greetings are from Cheery Chat and were masked while images from Scribble This were stamped over. Happy Birthday was finished with some paper piercing and a copper eyelet and Thank you with just a a strip of Chocolate Chip card. Quite simple but they hit the mark! Thanks Mum for letting me use your stamp sets!

I stayed with my Auntie (again) during my Uni week this time round, so this one was for her. Her favourite card that we made at Regionals was the skinny Thanks one, so I used that image as inspiration and this is what eventuated - the green stem really needed something, hence the Guava flowers. I also really wanted to try the dry-embossing with the Crop-o-Dile (I need a bit more practice!). This uses the gorgeous Live Your Dream set from the Summer Mini and once again, colour scheme is Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White.

I just thought I'd also share a couple of photos of Luana on the farm. I really hope she is now old enough to have some sort of memory of the farm when she's older.

On our HUGE slippery dip that Grandpa made.

On the header with Popsy- we went with him for a bit while he was reaping canola. Luana loves the fact the header goes 'round and round and round' (and also imaging the hands and arms going round and round and round!!)

Basics Wish

I love Kristina's Colour Inspirations but rarely get to play with them. As usual, the most recent inspiration colours were lovely and I really enjoyed working with them, but I missed the cut off for entering the competition.


Here's the inspiration:

I haven't pulled out Bud Basics for a while, but it just seemed to fit these colours well. I wheeled Basics Outline in Rose Red on Whisper White, and stamped the flowers in Pretty in Pink, and the leaves in second generation Old Olive. This panel was mounted on Pretty in Pink, then on Old Olive which was torn on the bottom and Rose Red provided the card base. I actually stamped Sanded in Pretty in Pink on the base, but it faded into the background... I added some white grosgrain with a buckle from Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware to the main panel, and stamped wish from Big Bold Birthday in Rose on White, added a couple of leaves, punched it out with the 1 1/4" circle punch, then punched the base with the 1 3/8" circle punch.

Let me know what you think. I think the Festive Season has sucked the creative juices a bit...

This will be making it's way down to my mother-in-law in the next week or so, along with a calendar, but more on that later.