Celebrations all around

Celebrations have been abundant in the lives of my family and friends lately - another gorgeous bundle arrived mid July, and yet another yesterday, we've had birthdays galore, and engagements; my cousin and my sister and her now-fiancee!! It's all been adding to my creativity - pity I have to work too and can't spend all day playing.

First up, little (well not-so-little, he was 10lb 7oz!!) Harrison arrived mid July. I was able to catch up with the rest of his family about a fortnight before he entered the world, but I will have to wait for a few months before I meet him in person.

Stamps: Wild About You, Big Deal Alphabet, Tidy Alphabet (retired), Polka Dots and Paisley

Card: Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Brilliant Blue, Summer Sunm Certainly Celery, Old Olive

Other: Petals & Paisleys DSP

Little Tayla arrived yesterday, but I have yet to make her card - stayed tuned!

One of my favourite cards of late (and just one of the many birthday cards I've made) has been the one I made for my cousin's 21st. I wanted to make something a bit speccy, but still man-enough. I think I got it!!

Stamps: Classic Stars Jumbo Wheel

Card: Not Quite Navy, Brushed Silver, Brushed Copper

Ink: Versamark

Other: Fall Flowers DSP, Silver embossing powder, On Board Simon Lower chipboard

Once again, this looks so much better IRL - the metallics really make it. We had a great day celebrating with Sam, my cousins and my grandparents (who travelled up to Darwin to celebrate) - and of course Luana was doted on all day.

The card that 'inspired' Sam's was the one I made for my cousins engagement. I like to use the colour scheme from invitations to inspire what I make, and this invite was black on silver. This is what I came up with.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Carte Postale

Card: Purley Pomgranate, Basic Black, Brushed Silver

Ink: Versamark

Other: Silver embossing powder

I think the Purely Pomegranate adds a little bit of romance. Now I need to come up with a really special card for my sister and her fiancee!! We are so excited!!

Swaps and swaps

I am always up for learning something new (that's why I think I'll never stop studying!), so I am usually one of the first ones to put my hand up for a new swap. This month is a little different due to massive commitments, but over the past couple of months I have participated in 2 that I haven't yet posted - Mel's Basic Grey Mini Catalogue swap and the Happy Stampers (the team I belong to) Watercolour swap. Here are my contributions:

I was really happy with how my first attempt at spotlighting worked - it really does look better IRL.

Stamps: It's Beautiful Jumbo Wheel, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Card: Basic Grey, Ballet Blue, Pumpin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Grey, Ballet Blue

Other: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, silver eyelet

I was a bit unsure about the watercolouring, but think I managed to pull this off - it's going to take a lot of practice to improve my confidence though!

Stamps: Oh, So Lovely (Level 1 Hostess set), Garden Whimsy

Card: Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, Watercolour paper

Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Regal Rose

Other: Certainly Celery Prints DSP, Bashful Blue brad, Rich Regals watercolour crayons, Soft Subtles Stampin' Write markers, light blue gingham ribbon

Sorry about the spacing, this is one thing I can't figure out on computers sometimes....

Thanks Mel and Karen for organising these swaps. I really enjoy being a part of them!

Nerine's Back to Basics Challenge

My sister demo Nerine set a Back to Basics challenge not long ago that I thought 'yay, I have a couple of cards that already fit that challenge'. She set a basic layout to use and the conditions 2 colours and 1 neutral.

This first one I made for my Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary last year. I really like this card because it is so quick and easy, but I'd forgotten that I'd used 3 colours...

Stamps: Petal Prints, Heartfelt Thanks

Card: Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Whisper White

Ink: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum

This second one will look familiar because I posted it a while ago, but I love it, and so did my friend Susan who I made it for.

Stamps: Time Well Spent

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Lovely Lilac

Ink: Lovely Lilac

Other: White gel pen, Lovely Lilac Stampin' Write Marker

The only thing was, one of the conditions of the challenge was to use only 2 colours and a neutral, and Suze's card used 2 neutrals and a colour. So, with these two cards not quite meeting the conditions, I came up with this card to submit:

Stamps: Priceless

Card: Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral, Whisper White

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral

Other: 1 1/4" circle punch, ice rhinestone brad

(I have no idea why the spacing has just gone haywire - sorry). I was really happy with this card; IRL it looks much better. I twisted the punched background circles for the butterflies to give them a swirl effect. My sister almost ended up with this as her birthday card, but I have since made another which I will post soon...

If you like what you see, check out Nerine's blog and vote after the 3rd of August!!

DSP for Grace

My work colleague and fellow card maker Grace recently celebrated another birthday, so I whipped up this card for her. She loves using DSP in her cards and doesn't like a lot of 'frills' and ribbons, so I tried to keep it quite simple and used my current favourite DSP Fall Flowers.

Stamp Set: A Little Birthday Cheer

Card: Old Olive, Soft Sky, Really Rust

Paper: Fall Flowers DSP

Ink: Versamark

I embarrased her by organising a morning tea at work, but I think all was forgiven with chocolates...

Thank you Nerine

My sister demo Nerine recently nominated me for my very first blog award.

Thank you so much Nerine - you are incredibly talented and I am honoured that I inspire you!

For my little bro...

In between my recent Adelaide trips, my little (well 26 year old) brother had his birthday, and for once I was organised and he got his card AND pressie before the event (unlike this posting). You all know the difficulty I have with masculine cards, so here 'tis.


I didn't realise until after, but I used very similar colours to Dad's card (these are Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, Real Red and So Saffron). I used the background stamp from Looks Like Spring and the star is from Classic Backgrounds. Once again, his name uses Big Deal Alphabet (a common occurence at the moment, but it's such a great alphabet!!). I stamped off each letter in Wild Wasabi, and then kissed each one with the Looks Like Spring diamond background to give the 'two-tonish' effect. I like the way the letters worked out, but think I should have used the diamond outline for the background instead.... As usual though, Dad was quite impressed (gotta love your Dad!!).

Happy Birthday Mate!!

Poppin' Pastels Swap

Well, I've taken my time posting this card too... As mentioned previously, I was involved in a Poppin' Pastels swap last month which provided me with quite a challenge. Third time lucky, this was the card I ended up swapping:

My offering was quite different to the other swappers, so I hope they liked it...
The main poppin' pastel image (and the flowers too) was from Bold Butterfly. I must say using sponge daubers makes so much difference with this technique. The background was Paisley. Card stock and inks were Taken with Teal, Lavendar Lace , Soft Sky and Old Olive. We also needed to include an eyelet, so mine were silver (thanks Mel!).

Now I just need to get my head around 2 more swaps I've put my hand up for.

Welcome Shanae and Casey

Sorry once again it's been a while - the horrific amount of travelling has finally caught up with me... Even so, I was still able to sit down last weekend and make a dent in the HUGE list of cards I need to make. I thought first up today I would show you the cards I made for the beautiful twins - who are almost 2 weeks old!!


After I finished these, I thought 'Oops, they're not very baby-ish...' but, they fit with the colour scheme Kerry has chosen for them - obviously pink for Shanae and purple for Casey. Being twins, I wanted to make something similar, but different, and as Shanae's name wouldn't fit on a 'conventional' card, the folding provided one of the differences!! Both cards use images from Wild About You and Big Deal Alphabet. Shanae's card is Pixie Pink and Pink Passion (with Very Vanilla), finished with (retired) Pixie Pink eyelets, and Casey's card is Lovely Lilac and Almost Amethyst, finished with Dazzling Diamonds (on the elephant's toenails too!!). I know they are bolder than most baby cards, but I do think they suit these gorgeous little bundles. They'll be almost 5 months old next time I see them :-(

ABCD... Airports & AFS, Babies, Cars & Catch ups, Diabetes

These are the reasons why I haven't posted for a while. I was thinking on my latest drive up to Darwin last week that by last night, I would have travelled pretty close to 14 500kms in 2 1/2 weeks. That's a bit scary, especially considering Luana has basically done the same. How long do you think it will take to get her back into a routine?!?

So, we have spent a lot of time in airports and on airplanes (and Luana LOVES planes and excitedly exclaims 'plane, plane' when we walk along the ramps towards the plane and she can see them through the glass; she has just started saying aeroplane today too - too cute!), and just as much time in cars. I learned a lot at the AFS conference (and we are still looking for 2 volunteer host families in the NT for an Italian boy and a Brazilian boy for 6 months who arrive Aug 1st - PLEASE contact me if you can help - all you need is a spare bed and an open mind), and am glad the second week of my diabetes course is over, but I have a 3000 word assignment due at the end of Sep. The most fun part of the trip was meeting 3 beautiful new little girls - Alexandra (her card I have already posted) and Shanae and Casey - the twin daughters of Luana's godmother. They are all so gorgeous and I'm glad we could meet them in person!

Here's a photo of Luana meeting Casey.We were also able to catch up with a few friends in the little bit of spare time I had. I didn't even really get an opportunity to do any shopping these trips :-( My credit card is happier for it though!

Anyways, I have not had time to indulge in stamping (and the one night I was attending a demo night I had to leave early because Luana wouldn't settle so didn't finish anything), but I still have a couple cards up my sleeve I haven't posted yet so that will have to tied me over until I can find a spare few minutes to attack the list of cards I need to make (thanks to baby group I have a HEAP of 2 year old cards to make over the next couple months).

This card was made for a friends little girl who is turning 6 tomorrow.

Purple is her favourite colour, so I used Almost Amethyst (the 6 is out of discontinued DSP) and Lovely Lilac, as well as Confetti White card, which I think is a little bit softer than Whisper White. I LOVE the butterfly from Time Well Spent so had to use that, especially as I used the ones from Bold Butterfly last year and couldn't possibly repeat so soon (plus I couldn't fit 6 on)! The 6 was traced from Simon On Board Lower chipboard and cut out, and the 3D butterfly was coloured in a bit using a Lovely Lilac Stampin' Write marker. Hopefully she'll be happy with it and we'll get to see her soon. Happy Birthday Vetty!!

Must go and find my bed but hopefully it won't be too long until I post again!

Babies, babies, babies

So many of my friends are expecting babies in the next month or so, I thought I'd better get the jump on putting together some ideas for these precious arrivals. Most of them have found out they are having girls, so I don't have to stick to a neutral colour scheme.

This first card I actually toyed with making for the Poppin' Pastels swap I'm involved with this month (check out Nerine's that she was going to include, but decided against it - it's gorgeous!). I decided against it, even though I really like it, as the card I am swapping showcases the technique a bit better - I will post it soon.

In true baby girl style, this one uses Pretty in Pink card, as well as Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa. Close to Cocoa and Barely Banana ink was used, as well as Versamark for the pastels to stick to. Bundle of Joy and Paisley provided the images and background respectively and it was finished with Barely Banana eyelets (set with the crop-o-dile of course) and light pink gigham ribbon.

We have had one eagerly awaited bundle arrive already, so this is the card to celebrate:

The colour scheme was actually inspired by a beautiful sunset I saw a couple of weeks ago while have dinner with Luana out on the balcony - we get some awesome colours up here - and is Pale Plum and Apricot Appeal. I used Stampin' Write markers to colour the giraffe from Bundle of Joy, and the name is courtesy of Alphabits - thank goodness for the Stamp-a-ma-jig!! Cream grosgrain ribbon (trying to finish existing stock before purchasing Very Vanilla) and a buckle from HodgePodge hardware provided the little something to finish it off.

Hopefully I will get to meet little Alexandra really soon. The next arrival is due early-mid July, but the twins could make an appearance at any stage! Will keep you posted!

Warm Penguins

I am involved in yet another swap at the moment (keeps my inspiration and motivation going) which needs to involve the technique Poppin' Pastels. When I first joined the challenge I thought, yep I can do this no probs, but it has proved far more challenging that I thought.... As you have probably gathered, I prefer bold, strong lines in my card making, so the subtle effect of the pastels has been a bit hard to get my head around. I had this great idea for using the penguin from Wild About You but it didn't quite work how I thought, so here's what I ended up creating:

I still used the penguin from Wild About You with 2 of them 'coloured' using pastels (Almost Amethyst and Apricot Appeal) and 1 stamped with Almost Amethyst ink and attached using Stampin' Dimensionals. I used a cotton bud for this attempt, which I think is why I didn't quite get the effect I was after... On the middle panel, I clear embossed one of the backgrounds from Itty Bitty Backgrounds then masked the 'snow' and sponged the sky with Bashful Blue. This was mounted on Almost Amethyst card, and the Bashful Blue card base was masked and I sponged on the snow with Whisper White Craft Ink, then used the same background stamp for more falling snow. I finished the card with a greeting from Like it a Latte (very hard to see in this picture sorry - 'sending warm thoughts your way...') stamped in Almost Amethyst.

I think I managed to salvage this one!

Sending warm thoughts to all of you lovely people who are experiencing the chilly weather at the moment!

Ta Nanny!!

I've been meaning to post this card on here for a while, but it has eluded me thus far. Mum came up a few weeks ago to look after Luana while I attended a workshop in Darwin. Both of them had an absolute ball and one little person was very spoiled... I sent this down to Mum just to say thanks. And Luana wrote in it too!

The colour wheel provided the colour combo: Rose Red and Barely Banana card with Certainly Celery Prints DSP. The ta! is Cameo Coral using the Big Deal Alphabet. All in the Family and Family Favourites were used for the little girl. She was coloured in using Soft Subtles Stampin' Write markers and ink pads with the aqua painter. The round tab punch was used to create the circle, and the slit punch was used for the scalloping.

Thanks Mum!! Can't wait to see you again really soon!

Orange....

My friend Mel set a colour challenge earlier this week and basically told me I had to participate (just joking Mel!). But it did provide me the inspiration to whip up a couple of cards that I'm actually quite happy with, even though orange really isn't a colour I usually use.

Mel set the colour challenge of Only Orange, Basic Black and Whisper White using a gorgeous photo as inspiration. This is the first card I came up with, which actually kills 3 birds with one stone: Mel's challenge, my friend's birthday and Nerine's challenge (make a birthday card for a 30-40 year old female using at least 1 punch and at least 1 piece of ribbon).

The colours are self explanatory and I used Looks Like Spring (again!!) for the flowers - stamping off repeatedly for the background, and using the coordinating Spring Flowers Bouquet to punch out the little black and orange centre flower. Time Well Spent provided the 'friend' which was 'inked' using a Stampin' Write marker. This was finished with Only Orange eyelets (retired) set with the crop-o-dile and Basic Black grosgrain ribbon. A white gel pen was used to add a little detail to the main flower background.

I also had to make this one once I got started. It's folded 'off centre' (I don't know the proper term, but the bottom layer is about 1cm wider than the top). Once again, colours are as above and Baroque Motifs provided the images. Tangerine grosgrain ribbon (retired) on the longer part finished it off. I really like this one and want to try it with white embossing and Tempting Turquoise....

Hope you like these too Mel and Nerine!!

More Faux Tiling

When I learn a new technique, I tend to make a few different cards to try things out, and the more I do in one hit, the 'less' time through the week I'm playing (Paul gets a bit upset when I take over the dining room table.... and nothing is safe with Luana around). Anyways, a few weeks ago when playing with the faux tiling technique for Mel's demo swap (see my previous post), these area few I came up with.

I knew I wanted to do something with the fleur de lys from Carte Postal but this actually turned completely different to what I had in mind. I used River Rock, Blue Bayou (love these colours at the moment) and Whisper White card, and Purely Pomegranate and Old Olive ink. I distressed the edges of the Blue Bayou and the background is the Baroque Border wheel. I coloured a piece of Whisper White ribbon with Purely Pomegranate ink and didn't realise how long it would take for that to dry so ended up with coloured fingers!! A little 'buckle' from Antique Brass HodgePodge Hardware was used to finish it off - tying a piece of ribbon just didn't work this time! I am really happy with how this turned out - just need an envelope to fit it now...

This one turned out pretty close to what I imagined. The very cute ladybirds (big and small) are from Garden Whimsy and the friend sentiment is courtesy of the Level 1 Hostess Set For a Friend. Purely Pomegranate and Pale Plum inks were used, as well as Pale Plum and Old Olive (and Whisper White) card. The little dots underneath 'friend' and the flower were filled in using a white gel pen.

Garden Whimsy provided the inspiration for this card, and without actually meaning to, I used all the current In Colours. Card used was Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi and River Rock, and inks used were Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou and Soft Sky - the smaller butterfly was inked with Soft Sky, then rock 'n' rolled with Blue Bayou - I like the effect. Lastly, it was finished with Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon. This one does look better IRL.

Must go and get some sleep, but check out Stampin' Up! for the latest fabulous offers - will post more info soon. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll be able to make a few cards Sunday while Paul is out canoeing down the Katherine River (crocs and all).

Tried Tie Dying!

I have finally handed up my last assignment for my first diabetes educators subject - yay! That's why it's been a while between posts.... Another reason is that last week at work I was really busy with Mataranka S*ports and Arts Week - a fabulous week where around 200 primary school kids from mainly the Katherine East region came together for a week of fun, sports and arts. And they didn't even realise they were learning!! I was there to hold the food sessions for 2 days, and we had some great creations emerge - we made Vegie Man faces with the younger kids and mini pizzas with the older ones. In the breaks (which those of you who work with kids know aren't really breaks) it was great to catch up with the other activities, one of which was tie dying. I have never done this before, so I took the opportunity to give it a go and tie dye a water bottle bag. (Thanks Caroline!!) This is my effort (not bad for a first timer I thought!), but as predicted, it has been claimed by Luana!