Thank you Leah and Nerine

I have been a bit slack lately and have received blog awards from two very talented ladies that I haven't acknowledged.




First up, I received 2 awards from Leah way back in March while I was away

As part of accepting the 'Proximidade' award, I need to post this too:

"These blogs believe and invest in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose 8 more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their awards."

This award means a lot to me as I also speak Spanish!!

And more recently I received this one from Nerine

Each if these awards require the receiver to pass them on.

I know a lot of these have been floating around lately, so I'll pass them onto all the links I have in my sidebar. Each of these wonderful women is an inspiration to me in their own way - check out their work!

Thank you so much Nerine and Leah!!

A Couple More New In Colours

My goal for my IB&C catalogue launch was to have at least one example of each new In Colour for the ladies to see them 'in action'. I didn't quite get there, but I made one using Pink Pirouette (in my previous post), and another two using Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point.

This one is actually mounted square, not how it looks in the photo - optical illusions!!

Kiwi Kiss was the In Colour for this card, and I used the re-inker with the blender pen as a marker for the stem, and then the Almost Amethyst Stamp'n Write marker for the rest of the flower from the Level 2 Hostess set Echoes of Kindness. The flower was mounted in Kiwi Kiss and Almost Amethyst card and Tres Chic in Almost Amethyst provided the background. A couple of clear rhinestone brads finished this one.

I really like the boyish look of this colour combo - it came together a bit by accident when I had some card scraps strewn on the table. I stamped the elephant from Wild About You in Pacific Point and kissed it with the little flower from Priceless. He was mounted with dimensionals on Whisper White, and I cut out a second ear and mounted that with dimensionals too. Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Pacific Point provide the card base, and I pierced a little bit around the elephant panel for a bit of interest. The greeting is from Family Phrases and was stamped in Old Olive before being punched out using the Word Window punch and mounted with dimensionals.

I'm quite liking these In Colours, I just need to get around to playing with the other three.

Another One of Nerine's Sketches

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, but long story short we have been attempting to retrieve 1000's of photos that were deleted when someone was a bit gung-ho in cleaning up the hard drive while I was sleeping. What was thought to be back up file of photos for our camera software, was actually THE photos. We have only been able to retrieve a small number of photos (as someone decided to download a movie after the deleting spree...). We had backed up a few months ago, but not that particular folder as we thought it was just a boring sample folder.... However, I had saved all photos of Luana to separate files, and my sister's wedding, and our family holidays to Kakadu and Kununurra, so they are safe. I'm just missing almost all other photos that don't feature Luana, including virtually all my photos of our family farm which Mum and Dad moved off a few weeks ago, and Paul's Tiger Experience at the Melbourne Zoo
:(
Facebook is a bit of a blessing too, but I had SO many more photos than that..... Moral of the story is always back up even what you don't think is really important.

Anyways, before this saga happened, I was actually able to make a HEAP of cards last weekend. Here area couple that fit Nerine's sketch. I love it!

This little one for the arrival of Malakai used Wild About You in the gorgeous baby colours of Barely Banana, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Close to Cocoa. Each animal was first generation stamped for the feature image, and second generation stamped for the background images. I also cut out a little part of each animal and mounted it with dimensionals. I stamped the card base with Weathered and Malakai's name with Tidy Alphabet (retired). All was finished off with a couple of Bashful Blue brads.

I also wanted to make a few samples using In Colours and new stamp sets for my catalogue launch, so here's one I came up with using Fresh Cuts and Pink Pirouette (love the softness of this colour!!)

Quite self explanatory, but I did Versamark the branch next to the scallop circle punch:



very subtle, but I like it. I was also happy with the way the mounting same colour on same colour worked too.
I will be taking my camera into the photo shop tomorrow to see if they can retrieve any more photos from that - wish me luck!!

KWernerDesign Colour Inspiration #49

It was fantastic catching up with my friend last night for some long over due stamping together - I really miss the Saturday nights we used to spend surrounded by cardstock, DSP, ink and stamp sets. Some nights we'd achieve not a lot, others we'd complete projects that had been in progress for ages.

Last night I completed a card I had been working on this week and a cute card for Kristina's latest colour inspiration.

I loved these colours the minute I saw them - I think Pacific Point is going to feature quite a bit in my work this year!

Here's what I came up with (well after midnight mind you!)

Funnily enough, I spent about an hour or so yesterday watching the dragonflies when we went swimming. They are enchanting creatures and such vibrant colours. Dry season is well and truly here!

Once again I used the Pick a Petal stamp set. Creating dragonflies is actually one of the main reasons I ordered this set! I stuck to the challenge colours and stamped off the Pacific Point 'petals' for the lighter wings. The blade of Kiwi Kiss grass has been scored down the centre for the vein, and I added a couple of little antennae in Basic Black - I didn't want them to stand out too much. The greeting comes from Loop to Loop rubons which are available as part of the Hand Drawn Bundle Level 3 Hostess Set.

Thanks for a fantastic night Helene!! It's been way too long. T xx

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter to you all!! I hope you are having a relaxing weekend! For the first time in a very long time we're spending Easter at home. It's been lovely so far relaxing, swimming at the Hot Springs and a local swimming spot (no tourists or rowdy teenagers risking breaking their necks!!) and sleeping, playing and spending time together as a family.

Today I would like to share with you a few projects I (and Luana in some cases) have been working on this week for this weekend.

This little cutie is the card I made to send out to our family members for Easter. I think I missed the post on a few of them though and they'll only arrive next week. I've used the chicken and greeting from A Good Egg, and paper pieced the egg shell. I've used the retired Spring Fling DSP as inspiration and pulled the colours Pretty in Pink, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi (retired) from the large spot paper. The ribbon is from the retired Flirty set and I used the scallop circle and 1 3/8" circle punches too. The layout for this card came from Sweet Sunday Sketches - I've been wanting to play with this one for so long.

I send a photo with each card too, and this is the one for this year - our Easter Fairy!! I figure if I send an Easter and Christmas photo, and of her birthday, then each family member gets at least 3 photos a year!

This is a bundle of Easter treats for my work colleagues. We also gave treats to Paul's colleagues and Luana's carers at child care. Apologies for the poor quality photo, but I did take it late at night under a dodgy light. Once again A Good Egg provided the stamps and I used Apricot Appeal and Almost Amethyst for the colours. The Amethyst topper was stamped with the flower background, and the zig-zag was coloured with blender pens and Almost Amethyst ink on the outer edges. I coloured in the little spots with Apricot Appeal Stampin' Write Marker, and finished off the eggs with a couple of Apricot Appeal brads before attaching them with dimensionals. Luana and I made chocolates that went into the bags last weekend....

She was a good help, although I'm certain she ate more of the chocolate drops than I was able to melt and put into the moulds!!

This next project is a gift for friends of ours who looked after our house while we were away.

I filled the jar with the chocolates we made and once again used retired Spring Fling DSP and A Good Egg. This time I decorated the eggs with flourishes and flowers from Priceless. The colour inspiration came from Leah's latest challenge:

Isn't this picture so cute?! I've used the inspiration colours of Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana and Whisper White. Thanks for another great inspiration Leah!!

Easter Bunny leaves a trail of eggs for Luana when he visits our house. Last year she was content to stop at the first one she found! So this year I thought I'd make a bag for her to put them in.

I've used one of Makeesha's Make it Monday tutorials, Carousel Notes Handbag, and just made the inside box part a bit bigger. I've used retired Groovy Guava Carousel Notes and card, retired Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon and retired Ginger Blossom DSP. The egg is once again from A Good Egg, stamped and sponged with retired Groove Guava ink. The 'L' is chipboard I had in my stash traced onto retired River Rock card. I can't wait to see her use it tomorrow morning!!

Last but not least I have the "Easter Bunny Basket" (as Luana calls it) that Luana decorated today to leave out for Easter Bunny tonight.

Once again I used retired Groovy Guava card to make the box - I just scored 2 3/4" all the way around and A4 piece and folded it up to make a box. Luana decorated it with some stickers I had left over from the very first Easter cards I made a couple of years ago. Not a bad effort at all for a 2 year old I think!!

Have a wonderful Easter. I'm looking forward to the next couple of days catching up with some friends from Darwin and taking the opportunity to stamp with one of my best gal pals!!

Happy Easter!!

Mel's New Catalogue CASE Challenge

It feels like ages since I've been able to play with one of Mel's challenges, but here's this weeks! This weeks challenge was to CASE your favourite card from the new Ideas Book & Catalogue. I love this years!! I was particularly drawn to the horizontal Pick a Petal card on page 96, so just had to work with that one.

I've changed a few things - the orientation, eliminated a circle and stitching, used a different stem, and a different colour for the flower. I 'm quite happy with the result!! The greeting is from A Little Birthday Cheer, and I scored the edges of the Chocolate Chip card for a bit of interest (and the spine of the leaf which is hard to see) too.

Thanks for another great challenge Mel!!

Thanks for Lending Us Your Car

During one of our recent stints in Adelaide, friends of ours loaned us their little car so we didn't have to hire one. I was forbidden to take any stamping supplies with me and couldn't make a card while we were down there, so I made this little card when we got back to send them as a thank you.

I just had to use the By Land car for this one, even though it's retired, and the Much Appreciated greeting (also retired). The little car was stamped in Rose Red (the colour of the car!!) and Basic Grey and was mounted on Almost Amethyst Prints DSP (retired) which has been mounted on distressed Almost Amethyst card. For the main panel I pierced Rose Red card stock, and on it mounted squares of So Saffron with So Saffron Prints DSP (also retired), which then had the circle mounted on top with dimensionals. This was all attached to a base of Always Artichoke (there it is again Sharon!).

I used the latest sketch from Taylored Expressions. I love her sketches, but this is the first one I've had the opportunity to play along.

I'm quite chuffed with how this one turned out! Thanks guys for the loan of the car!

Wedding Photos

As promised, here are some photos from my sister's wedding. It was a fantastic day - 28 degrees, no wind. The cows kept a respectable distance (the ceremony was held on our family farm), Cristy look fabulous, Brad and his brothers were all very handsome, Luana was an absolute gem and we had a great time!

Me and my gorgeous girl at the hairdresser.

All dressed. The sash on Luana's dress was made from what was cut off mine (there have to be some benefits to not being tall!)

Mum and Dad walked Cristy down the red carpet. She looked absolutely gorgeous! So did Mum.

Luana posing for Dad with the camera.

The bridal party.

Us 3 kids. The last photo of us together on the farm.

The happy couple cutting the fabulous cake. All those flowers were hand made!

Paul was behind the camera, hence the lack of photos of him, but the photographer did take a photo of us as a family so fingers crossed we are all looking at the camera!

Afternoon Tea Notes

I must apologise to those of you who have been checking my blog over the past few weeks to find nothing, then multiple posts. I have been down South for my sister's wedding, and had written and (thought I) scheduled post to come up while I didn't have computer access, only to find they didn't post when I scheduled them, although when I did post them, the dates were for when I wanted them to post originally..... sorry, that's a bit jumbled.

Anyway, I'm back now and made my first card tonight in almost 3 weeks - yay!! The new catalogue is here too and I LOVE it!! Nothing will quite replace Bold Butterfly, but I adore the Christmas stamps and there are some really funky flowers. E-mail me here of you would like to buy a copy, or you would like to host a workshop to receive one free and to have a play with the fantastic new products.

However, what I want to share with you tonight is a little gift I made my wonderful downline girls as a well done for all the fabulous work they do!! We are now spread all across the country so we can't have our little get togethers anymore :-(

I loved the Love Note folders we made at Regionals, and thought they would be just the thing to pop in the post. I used mainly retired product (now, it was current when I made them) - the colours were Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. I used Afternoon Tea DSP (from the Summer Mini) for the front of the folder, on the card and to line the envelopes. The stamps are from the retired sets Carte Postale and Live Your Dream (thought that one would make it to this years catalogue...) and I used the scallop circle, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches. The cover was all tied up with Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon.

Just a little token of appreciation girls for the great job you do - I miss having you around the corner!!