Spring Mini Swap

Thought I'd better make another appearance for this month so it's not an absolute washout :)

I was involved in a Spring Mini swap with a great group of girls in August - although I was only able to post my swaps mid-September due to our life being thrown into chaos.... Here's what I put together:

In these swaps I like to try and use a stamp set that may be one of the 'outsiders' - you know the ones that are great, but not everyone immediately falls in love with them. So for this one I used Introducing. I love it because I am expecting a little niece or nephew in November and will use it to make announcements for my sister, but it also has some classic invite stamps (I also used it for Luana's invitations this year). I also fell in love with the giant cupcake that is Simple Birthday Thanks, and thought I could show that it can be used for more than a thank you....

Quite straight forward - a little bit of masking (to take 'off' the thank you writing), a little bit of paper piecing - the chocolate dots are courtesy of the crop-o-dile - and a little bit of glitter.

The other swaps I've received have been great too - thank you for swapping with me!!

Stamps: Introducing, Simple Birthday Thanks
Card: Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose
Other: Crop-o-dile, Chunky Glitter, toothpick (non SU!), Tombo glue pen, sticky strip, glue dots

Cool Rock'n Roll

Despite being surrounded by boxes I have managed to make a couple of cards over the past few days - some people have said I should be packing, but I reckon I need time out too!! I actually only set out to make one card (for my Godmother) but ended up making 2 (the other for Paul's Auntie). Both using Keesh's latest cooling colour combo and one using the latest Sweet Sunday Sketch (a little abridged). Like many others, I think Keesh's colours are perfect for masculine cards, but I wanted to give girly cards a go with them.... Love the colours together!!

This was the second card I made and is actually one of the cute little Love Notes - love that size! I rock'n rolled the butterflies from Great Friend in the Spring Mini, tore a bit off the Love Note and swiped the torn edge in Not Quite Navy, and paper pierced the coloured parts for a bit of interest. This was very much an evolving card and turned out quite different to the initial plan...

This card was made for my Godmother who celebrates a birthday this week. I have used the very sweet Flowers in Silhouette stamp I was lucky enough to win in one of Stacey Schafer's Jewellery Colour Inspiration Challenges (with this card), rock 'n rolling again - I really like the effect of the Not Quite Navy on the Old Olive. I distressed the edges on the two large panels, and sponged the edges of the Very Vanilla with Chocolate Chip. I didn't have any ribbon the right width, so have just used some Chocolate Chip card along the bottom of the panel and finished with some retired Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware.

I'm quite happy with the result and can't wait to pop it in the post.

Butterflies For You

Stamps: Great Friend (Spring Mini)

Card: Very Vanilla (Love Note), Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Old Olive, Not Quite Navy

Other: paper piercer

Flowers For You

Stamps: Flowers in Silhouette, Great Friend (Spring Mini)

Card: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Chocolaye Chip, Very Vanilla

DSP: Haiku

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Other: Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (retired)

Happy Birthday Me Hearty!!

Thank you for being patient with me this month... Sometimes it feels like time is flying by and others it feels like it's crawling. I was very lucky and had Mum with us for a few days which was a HUGE help with the packing. I tell you what though, I'm getting sick of the sight of boxes!! Fingers crossed this move is the right step and we don't have to move again for a while....


Last week Luana was a bit of a social butterfly and had 2 birthday parties on the one day. For the little boy (she calls him and his sibling her 'brothers') I put together this cute card (if I do say so myself!!) as he had a pirate themed birthday this year:


I made this cute little pirate all by myself!!! No blog hopping for inspiration this time! His head, body and bandanna are the 1 3/8" circle punch, with the bandanna ends being a petal of the 5 petal flower punch cut down and a crop-o-dile circle for the knot. His arms and hands are the word window punch. His good eye is another crop-o-dile circle and his mouth and eyepatch are the corner of a scallop square. The '7' is trimmed down from the On Board Simon (retired) one and edged with a Brilliant Blue marker. The halo behind it was made with the two circle punches. Matey's Map jumbo wheel (retired) provided just the right touch for the background.

Luana's friend thought it was 'awesome' too which is the main thing!


Must be off to pack yet another box - it feels like it will never end!!


Stamps: Matey's Map Jumbo Wheel (retired)
Card: Wild Wasabi (retired), Whisper White, Blush Blossom, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Basic Black
DSP: Jersey Shore (retired)
Ink: Wild Wasabi (retired), Brilliant Blue
Punches: 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle, word window, 5 petal flower punch, crop-o-dile, scallop square
Other: On Board Simon Lower chipboard (retired)

Curtain Call Colour Challenge Act 3 with Mojo added

As part of my job I am often called up to see children on Kid's Ward, so have come to know many of the nurses quite well. One of them is expecting her first baby in October and I was chuffed to be invited to her Baby Shower tomorrow. As an added bonus I've been able to use the shower stamp from Greetings Eight for her card:

She knows she is having a little girl, so I thought the colours Stacey has chosen for her most recent Curtain Call Colour Challenge would work well, coupled with the latest Mojo Monday sketch, rotated:

I stamped the umbrella image twice in Regal Rose on Very Vanilla so I could fussy cut the open part and pop it up for a bit of dimension. This was layered on Regal Rose before being layered on top of the three strips of Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired) which had the edges swiped with Certainly Celery ink. Kraft and Very Vanilla layered on Regal Rose formed the card base and some wide Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon and Certainly Celery brads finished it off.

I'm not likely to be in town when this little girl enters the world, so I'm so glad I can celebrate with her wonderful mother tomorrow.

Stamps: Greetings Eight

Card: Regal Rose, Kraft, Very Vanilla
DSP: Certainly Celery Prints (retired)
Ink: Regal Rose, Certianly Celery
Other: Regal Rose 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon, Certainly Celery brads

Luana's Birthday Creations

I have been meaning to post this for ages, and as it is, I still haven't got around to making the Thank you's to coordinate with the invite and card for Luana's birthday.


I wasn't quite sure what theme to go with this year for her invites and ended up using Keesh's favourite colour combo (Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip) and Crazy for Cupcakes as inspiration. I posted a card in August that didn't quite make the cut for Miss Luana's card...

I wanted to keep the invited relatively straightforward, and the new Introducing stamp set from the Spring Mini was just begging to be used. I paper pieced the balloon from Crazy for Cupcakes with Sweet Always DSP, and despite my wanting this to be straightforward, I stamped one little cupcake from the cupcake tower in the same set three times on Pink Pirouette (icing), Pumpkin Pie (base) and Regal Rose (cherry) before fussy cutting it and putting it together. Stamping and using blender pens to colour just didn't work for me...

The next challenge was the card...

Luana had chosen a Bluh-fly (Butterfly) birthday cake, so I just had to pull out Bold Butterfly for her card. I used the Flitting By wheel on her first birthday invitations. I stamped off the solid base of the butterflies and flowers and stamped the outline detail in first generation, adding some sparkle to the butterflies (3 of course!). Clear rhinestone brads finished off the 3 flowers. I used second generation Pink Pirouette with the flower outline to add a bit of interest to the Whisper White circle the chipboard 3 was mounted on. The 3 was covered with Bella Rose DSP, the edges were sanded and inked with Chocolate Chip before mounting. After trying a few different cards, I was quite happy with this one!

Here's our family pic from the big day - I kept with the pink and orange theme for the cake too!! Luana loved it - what more can you ask for?!

As I mentioned a few posts ago, the reason for my lack of inspiration and blogging lately will become apparent soon... and the time is now. A few weeks ago, we found out VERY unexpectedly that Paul had been offered a short-term contract position in Alice Springs (for those of you not in Australia - 1200km south of Katherine, around about the middle of Australia). This had not ever been even an outside thought in our life plan so this offer threw our lives into turmoil - what to do?! In the end, it worked out I could transfer to a locum position down there, so we decided (VERY quickly) to take the plunge and move down the track to keep our little family together. Who knows where we will be early next year?! Anyone with a crystal ball is more than welcome to throw any hints our way! Consequently, life has since been mad with packing, contract negotiations, trying to find a place to live and trying to find child care for Miss Luana, as well as everything else that goes with moving.... It is slowly taking shape, but I think I will be relieved when we're finally all down there.

Please bear with me over the next few months with blogging, and for those of you waiting - I will post my swaps soon - I promise!!

Invitation

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, Introducing (Spring Mini)

Card: Regal Rose, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Pumkpin Pie

DSP: Sweet Always

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Pumkin Pie

Card

Stamps: Bold Butterfly (retired)

Card: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie

DSP: Sweet Always, Bella Rose

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip

Punches: 1 1/4" circle, 1 3/8" circle

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, Clear rhinestone brads, On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard