Finally!!

Sorry for the long time between posts, but I have a good reason - honest!! I was busy making swaps for my first Convention, and I arrived home today, still buzzing after a great weekend.

We had an awesome time in Sydney (my first visit) and I was fortunate to share a room and spend lots of overdue time with my friend and upline Karen. I also met a couple of blog friends in the flesh, made some new friends too, received some AWESOME swaps, made some great projects and came home inspired!

So, here's the most popular of my swaps (by a narrow margin). I wanted to work with collaging again and think this wheel and set work perfectly for it. I wheeled the base card in Sahara Sand too to soften it (not easy to see in the photo) and keeping in with {my} Vintage style - a bit of sponging and lots of distressing added to the softeness.

Thank you to everyone who swapped with me - there we SO many awesome swaps. If you have popped over to visit because I swapped with you, please leave a message :) I'm going to try to visit everyone's blogs who I swapped with over the next week or so.

Will post my other swaps, the projects we made and some photos later!!

Thanks for visiting!






Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel (both Autumn-Winter Mini)
Card: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Sahara Sand
Other: Vintage Brads

Thanks Leah

I was quite chuffed the other day to receive this Beautiful Blogger award from Leah. I have come to know Leah through blogland and swaps that a mutual friend used to organise, and I have enjoyed playing Leah's various blog challenges over the last year or so. She shares so many awesome projects on her blog and I am so excited to be meeting her in the flesh soon!!!!

As part of accepting this award, I am to nominate 10 more beautiful blogs and tell you 10 things about myself.

Check out these 10 blogs (I don't think I can pass this back to Leah....)

Kirsty's Cards 'n' Scrapping

Lulla's L-ink

Teneale Williams

Stacey's Stamping Stage

Janeybell

My Inner Reflection

Inkspirations

The Sweetest Thing

Kim's Stamping Spot

Traveling Mama

10 facts about me (no particular order).....

1. I am really excited to have recently made contact again with my host family from my student exchange.

2. I LOVE reading but rarely have the time to do so these days - I bought 2 books at Easter and have read not quite a chapter of one.

3. I have never been to Sydney - yet!

4. I have a gorgeous godson whom I am hoping to meet in the flesh later this year xxxx

5. I really enjoy my job as a clinical dietitian, even though it can be stressful and heartbreaking at times.

6. I have a wonderful family whom I miss incredibly every day (even though it's been over 5 years since we lived in the same state).

7. I feel privileged to have friends that don't worry that we haven't been in touch for ages, we still talk with each other like it was only yesterday.

8. I feel so lucky to have lived in and been able to visit some of the most beautiful parts of Australia.

9. I love watching my little girl sleep

10. Even though I can talk the leg off a chair, I find it really difficult to find the right words to write in cards, that's one reason why I make them - the thought goes into the design :)

Thanks so much Leah and thanks for visiting!

Tea for You

As I live so far away from so many loved ones, I quite like finding little projects that end up flattish so they can be popped in an envelope and in the post. This little tea folder is no exception, and the colour scheme from the Cottage Wall DSP worked nicely with Twinings Darjeeling teabags (maybe not so much in these photos though...)!!

I thought I'd share this with you as part of the Stampin' Royalty 'Anything But a Card' challenge this week.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Share a Cup (AW Mini)

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White

DSP: Cottage Wall (AW Mini)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle, Eyelet border

A Couple of ColourQ Cards

There are always awesome colours to work with over at ColourQ, and this week Arielle has given an additional task of challenging a friend to play along as well, so I challenged my good friend Nerine to join in! I know she's been stamping and scrapping a bit lately, and I know I always find challenges great inspiration.

As we don't have Crushed Curry, I have substituted Summer Sun - I think it works better than Marigold Morning which I tried last time....

I wanted the flower to be THE focus of the card above so have kept everything else simple and understated. I did add a couple of rows of paper piercing to the top and the bottom of the Brilliant Blue base to tie in with the flower.

I almost wasn't going to post this card, but when I came back and looked at it again after a few hours I thought 'yeah, I do like it'... VERY simple, just a little bit of paper piecing. A wonderful friend found and sent me this Just Beakause stamp set for my birthday because I love toucans (I'm toucantash on SCS!) and was really disappointed I didn't get this set before it retired. This is the first time I have used it in a card - I've only inked it up once before but that toucan is in my UFO stash. Isn't that little toucan SO cute though?!

This card could suit for either a male or a female birthday - such versatile colours!

Thanks for visiting again!

Happy Birthday

Stamps: All Year Cheer II (retired), Friendly Flowers (retired)

Card: Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Ink: Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise

Other: Filigree Designer Brads, Certainly Celery Ribbon (retired), paper piercer

Birds of a Feather

Stamps: Just Beakause (retired)

Card: Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Whisper White

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Brillant Blue, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery

Spots and more Spots!

Paul announced Friday night we were heading out for drinks this weekend for a his work colleague's birthday, so I thought I should put together a card for her. She's young and very sporty and funky, so flowers and 'super-girly' were out of the question. The bold funky colours of this weeks Colour Throwdown and the groovy sketch over at Mojo Monday were just what I needed to work with, so I made a card and a wine tag to dress up the bottle a touch.

Here's a closer pic of the card. As there are SO many spots, I have left the brads out of the sketch - they would have been lost!!

We had a lovely afternoon and Luana fell asleep virtually as soon as we walked in the door!

Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Lots of Thoughts (retired)

Card: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White

DSP: Pink Flamingo, Good Morning Sunshine, Bella Rose

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red

Other: Oval Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch, Corner Rounder, 1 3/8" Circle Punch

Curtain Call Act 28 plus some

Just a quick offering again today. I was so tired last night I sat down in front of the tv and actually watched some AFL... so I whipped up this little card this morning in between dance and basketball using this weeks Curtain Call Colour Challenge, Sweet Sunday Sketch and ABC Challenge - T is for Thank you, as the are all such great inspiration this week I couldn't let them pass.

I wanted to keep it simple and not too many layers.. Both the challenges featured above are SO versatile - thanks ladies!!

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Stamps: One of a Kind

Card: Kraft, Whisper White

DSP: Urban Garden, Raspberry Tart

Ink: Rose Red

Other: Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon, 5/8" Jumbo Brads, Fashion District Rubons (retired), paper piercer

Punchy Punches

It took me a little while to get around to venturing into using punches, and now I use them on almost every project, which is particularly handy when a challenge is around punches like over at Stampin' Royalty at the moment.

I've seen these Onesie cards featuring on a few blogs over the last year or so and thought they would be good to make for a friend who has recently given birth to BEAUTIFUL twin girls. I like to make a card for each baby, both different as each baby is unique. The 'press studs' at the bottom were a handy way to use up a few retired eyelets too :) I've kept them quite simple, with most of the details being punch-derived.

I couldn't resist posting this little cutie for this challenge either. I love making this little stegosaurus!! This time he's featuring in Baja Breeze and Soft Suede (which are very boy-ish colours, so this fits with the criteria of Pile It On this week), with DSP from the Level 3 Hostess Set - Hand Drawn Bundle. Details on what was used to make this little fellow can be found at this post.

And last but not least, here's a creation by Luana (remember, she's 3!) for her Nanny for Mother's Day!! I now have no loose hearts floating around the craft area!

Thanks for visiting!

Onesie Cards

Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Big Deal Alphabet

Card: Blush Blossom, Almost Amythest, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Ink: Blush Blossom, Almost Amethyst, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery

Punches: 1 3/8" Circle, Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" Circle, Wide Oval

Other: Soft Subtles Eyelets (retired)

Dazzling Eastern Blooms

I almost forgot a friend's birthday - thank goodness for FaceBook reminders :) So this afternoon I put together this 'dazzling' number using Sketch ' Color Challenge #9 and Eastern Blooms, one of my fall-to sets. It was very bright outside when I took the photo, and I didn't realise 'til I'd downloaded it that it was rather crooked - sorry (just adds to the charm!)

I've added a little bit of scoring detail to the top and bottom of the card (which doesn't show up real well in the pic) and LOTS of Dazzling Diamonds.

I must say a big DANKE to Nadia and Andrea who chose this card as their winner last week. Thank you so much, you made my day.

Thanks for visiting.


Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Birthday Whimsy (retired)
Card: Whisper White, Basic Grey
Ink: Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun
Other: Dazzling Diamonds

More Mother's Day

I really wanted to make a Mother's Day card for Mum that featured green, as it's her favourite colour. My favourite colour is purple (in case you hadn't realised - I think Rich Razzleberry is my new favourite), so this weeks Colour Throwdown was perfect - it has both!! Teamed with yet another gorgeous sketch from Taylored Expressions, I am stoked with the result.

I played with putting brads in the centre of the flowers, but ended up leaving them off as it looked a bit 'heavy'. With the edging around the sentiment, I just snipped into the valleys of the eyelet border so it would fold a bit and guided it around the circle. I'm happy with the result!

Thank you ladies for helping me make such a special card for such a special woman.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Vintage Vogue (Autumn Winter Mini), All Year Cheer II (retired)

Card: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum, Whisper White

DSP: Cottage Garden (Autumn Winter Mini)

Ink: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Barely Banana, Pale Plum

Other: Eyelet Border Punch, Corner Rounder Punch (non-SU), Circle Scissors Plus

Quilting meets Card Making

The last time I actually sat down in front of a sewing machine, I was still in high school (Year 10 I think...). I have always admired the awesome work quilters do - Luana's godmother's Mum and one of Mum's friends both make gorgeous quilts and there were some AMAZING quilters in Katherine who raffled off creations periodically but I was never lucky enough to win one. There is also a quilting feature in one of the homemaker magazines I picked up the other day, so I was a bit inspired to try some of the patterns in my cards. The Colour Q Challenge this week inspired me to try out the traditional log cabin design; and I tell you, it's harder than it looks to get all the pieces lined up and exactly the right length.

I'm sure I read somewhere that in the log cabin design, the light colour are on one side and the dark colours are on the opposite representing the light and shade cast by the sun. For those of you who are quilters, please correct me if I'm wrong. I also put a burgandy square in the centre (instead of red) to represent the hearth, but that was covered by the image - oops.

I don't have any DSP in these colours, so made my own patterns with the flowers from Echoes of Kindness and actually fussy cut the entire rose before mounting it on the wide oval with scallop edging which had been sponged with Sage Shadow ink.

Hope you've had a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Echoes of Kindness (Level 2 Hostess Stamp)

Card: Bravo Burgandy, Sage Shadow, Always Artichoke, Cameo Coral, Whisper White

Ink: Bravo Burgandy, Sage Shadow, Always Artichoke, Cameo Coral

Punches: Wide Ovel, Scallop Circle, 1 1/4" Circle

Other: Vintage Brads

Puppy Love

When I lamented a few weeks ago that Pixie Pink was being retired because it was my 'Luana' colour, Stacey recommended Melon Mambo as the replacement. Great minds must think alike {GRIN} as I had been contemplating that replacement not long before I wrote that post. Anyway, here is my first Luana project with her 'new' colour, and it's using Stacey's latest Curtain Call Colour Challenge and the latest Inkspirations Inspiration Challenge being hosted by Kirsty this week.

Flowers were a given this week, and the colours matched beautifully with the dress Luana is wearing in the photo. She's holding Angus who was only a couple weeks old at the time - he's the puppy of a friend's dog and Luana LOVED him and his siblings. We can't have a dog here though as we're renting...

The page hasn't photographed as well as I'd hoped - sorry, but here's a close up of the big flower:

Lots of layers and rock'n rolling. Such a fabulous, easy technique. This was the first time I have inked up my new Vintage Vogue stamp set AND used the clear mount stamps - they are fabulous!! I'm a huge fan. The eyelet border punch detail also matched the edging on Luana's dress.

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Vintage Vogue (Autumn Winter Mini), Tidy Alphabet (retired), So Very (retired)

Card: Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

Ink: Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery

Other: Eyelet Border Punch, Sherbet Designer Buttons (retired), Linen Thread, Soft Subtles Brads