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.

Here comes 2009

Wow. It's hard to believe it's the last day of 2008. This year has certainly been an interesting one for the Murray family - especially the last few months - but we wouldn't have it any other way.




I hope your Christmas was filled with love and laughter. We had a wonderful day with friends of ours that are moving tomorrow :-( The kids had a great time, the food was wonderful and we were with people we love (even though our families were on the other side of the country).


On this last day of the year, I thought I would share my contribution to the recent Summer Mini swap I was involved with. Once again, my apologies to the girls for being late, but I will fit too much onto my plate and decide to travel all around the country at short notice!

When I saw the Summer Mini Ocean Commotion caught my eye and I just had to use it for this swap. I had planned what I was going to do during a rather dry lecture at Uni, but this is not very much like I'd planned at all. I drew inspiration for the colours from the gorgeous Bali Breeze DSP, which also features. I stamped the fish in Purely Pomogranate on Whisper White, masked it and stamped off the Old Olive seaweed once before stamping over the fish. This was mounted on Old Olive and finished off with a bit of Purely Pomegranate double stitched ribbon and a couple of Styled Silver brads. This was all mounted with dimensionals on the torn DSP which was layered into Purely Pomegranate card. The greeting from Short & Sweet was stamped in Whisper White.

I am now heading off to help finish clean a house - it means our friends are one step closer to leaving though.

Wishing you all a festive New Years Eve and may 2009 bring you all you wish for.

Season's Greetings 2008

Merry Christmas to you!

As I write this, we are on floodwatch (which happens quite regularly through the Wet Season), but the river has been rising quite quickly today (was about 10m at the Railway Bridge at 4pm), there is a lot of rain around and A LOT of rain in the catchment area for the Katherine River. It looks like we're in for a wet Christmas - I'm just hoping not too wet! I have too much stuff to move up if we flood!

Despite my travels at prime Christmas card making time this year, I still wanted to make our cards, with a photo of Luana, to send people down South. It's just a nice way for everyone who we live so far away from to see our gorgeous girl (at least once a year). I thought I was all organised this year - I'd gone on-line to see the Christmas t-shirt I wanted to buy Luana, I'd ordered the additional card stock, and I'd taken down the stamp sets and card stock to Adelaide so I could start making them while we were down there. BUT, every time I went into the shop to buy the t-shirt, it hadn't arrived yet.... but the lovely sales lady showed me another VERY cute one which I just couldn't leave there, but didn't fit with my colour scheme. So, I just had to change it! Hence, part of the delay as I had to order different card stock and I didn't have any of the colour ink pads with me in the new colours..... Here's the result - hope it was worth the wait!

This didn't photograph as well as I hoped and I really do love it IRL. I chose Purely Pomegranate, Tempting Turquoise and silver to coordinate with Luana's t-shirt and used stamps from Season of Joy (retired) and Many Merry Messages (which is 20% off with a $20 order until Dec 31st). The greeting is silver embossed and looks so much better IRL. Very simple, but from the heart.

Luana always likes to try and help me stamp too, so one day I let her go her hardest for cards for her grandparents.

For Nana

For Nanny and Popsy

Both use Real Red and Glorious Green, and Luana used Season of Joy for the feature panels. I used gold cord (retired) for Paul's Mums. Mum and Dad's has noel from Many Merry Messages gold embossed, I used the new scallop edge punch for a bit of interest and added some red grosgrain underneath.

I hope your Christmas weekend is filled with love and laughter.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Adelaide Regionals 2008

I was really lucky that my latest trip to Adelaide coincided with Regionals - and to think I was going to head down a week later!! As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a fantastic day. I learned so much, met some truly talented people and was thoroughly inspired! If you ever get the opportunity, attend one of these sessions, and take heaps of swaps!!

Here are the 2 swaps I contributed:

This one was actually taken from a farewell card I made for friends leaving the Territory. It uses Sahara Sand and Really Rust cardstock, and Apple Cider DSP (Spring Mini - retired). The crocodile from Wild About You (what else for the Top End?!) and the greeting from Sweet Serendipity (Spring Mini - retired) are stamped in Wild Wasabi, with the greeting stamped on the round tab punch out. Quite simple, but please remind me not to fussy cut swaps again, especially when I'm travelling across the country while completing them!! Lori from SU! in the USA quite liked this one!

I based this one on the photo board I made for Paul's birthday in October - I liked the diamonds! Once again quite simple (but I was quite happy for that when I was finishing them at 1am after travelling all day!). I used Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock, with Certainly Celery Print DSP (Iran out of Chocolate Chip though and had to improvise! I used DSP swiped heavily with Chocolate Chip ink for the middle panel on a few....). The greeting and flowers are from Short & Sweet (I can't figure out know why it took me so long to get that set!) all stamped in Chocolate Chip and finished with Certainly Celery brads. The middle diamond was attached with dimensionals.

There were so many gorgeous swaps I received but I thought I would share my favourite 5 with you. From top left: Nicole Derendorf (http://stampingdownunder.wordpress.com/), Lorrae Weiss, Kari Hughes (http://www.karigail.wordpress.com/), the lady who made this cute little owl didn't put her name on it but it's just so cute!, Deb Darby.

Thank you to everyone who swapped with me!!

And here are the projects we made. They all use the new Live Your Dream stamp set, and a combination of Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava (inlcuding the new Afternoon Tea DSP). Not bad for a couple of hours!!

Thanks Card

Thanks Matchbook Card

Dreams 6"x6" Scrapbook Page (I put the photo in after I got home)

Thanks Card Folder

Thanks Card Folder Love Notes with lined envelopes

A fantastic day! Thank you Stampin' Up! for bringing Regionals to SA!!

KWernerDesign Colour Inspiration #35

I love to see what inspiration Kristina comes up with each week, and also seeing other people's entries. I have finally found the time to be able to make an entry for her latest challenge, but am not sure if I'll be able to get it in on time (I can never remember how far behind the USA is to us).... Here's this weeks inspiration

We don't have Baja Breeze here yet, so I substituted the retired Cool Caribbean. As ANOTHER friend has had a baby (I need to be careful of the company I keep I think!! No pitter patter of little feet in our house any time soon), I thought these colours would be nice for a welcome card. Here's what I came up with:

I used Sanded to add a bit of texture to the card base, Nursery Necessities provided the cute little elephant, the phrases and the caribbean stars, and the background stars in the cut out is from Season of Joy (from the finished Spring Mini; I love how you can use seasonal stamps all year round!). Cooper's name is created with the retired Pure and Simple Upper Alphabet. I thought the scalloping (using the fantastic new scallop punch) added a bit of softness to the card. I had to use some creative thinking to cut out the circle as I used the round tab punch, but it really doesn't like punching through more than 2 layers. A suggestion, if you would like to try this, punch out the circle on the base card first, then layer your strips, then cut them out with a craft knife! The last little extra I included was clear embossing the caribbean elephant and attaching him with Dimensionals.

This little elephant will be in the post today on his way down to meet little Cooper - congrats Kel!! I'm looking forward to meeting your little man soon!!

Zarna's Blog Candy

I found Zarna's blog through her entries into Makeesha's challenges - in fact, our styles are scarily similar!! It's her birthday this month (and mine too - could that be a reason for the scary coincidences?) and she's giving away the presents.
Check out her awesome blog at:
http://www.zarnasworld.blogspot.com/

Good luck and Happy Birthday Zarna!!

I'm Back!!

My apologies to those who have been checking in on me and finding nothing new for the past month or so. I spent some time down South and a couple days after coming back, we went on a family get away to Kununurra for a few days. I had my camera the whole time, but nothing to download photos with, and only had limited access to computers.

Anyways, in SA I was fortunate to attend Regionals. What a great day! I will post the cards I made for swaps and what we made on the day later when I have had time to photograph them all. I was truly inspired and the day reinforced why I love what I do! It was fabulous to meet some very talented ladies, and another Territorian too (Hi Christine!!!) - there were only 2 of us!

While away, I also attended the final week of Uni for my diabetes course (1 more assignment to go....), celebrated my sisters engagement, found all of our dresses for the wedding (NOT the colours she originally picked mind you, so I need to re-think what to do for the wedding card!), spent some wonderful time with family and friends and took Luana to The Wiggles concert (I'll post photos later). I did manage to fit some stamping in and held a workshop (Hi Suze, Jude and Mabel), but haven't photographed those cards yet. It was a busy few weeks. To top off this trip, the Murray's decided to head over to Kununurra for the weekend just gone. We had a lovely time; I just love the stunning environment we have up here, especially the boabs in the Kimberley, and everything we are able to experience. I'll post some photos later too.

What a month!!

Ok. I've been working on our Christmas cards and some swaps too for the Happy Stampers. I'm still working on the Summer Mini one (sorry guys, have been trying to find the time), but here's my Christmas contribution.

I used the fabulous Season of Joy stamp set, in Tempting Turquoise and River Rock. My Whisper White ink pad isn't brilliant at the moment, so 'Merry Christmas' is embossed in white. The star has Dazzling Diamonds for a bit of bling, and I pierced all the 'dots' on the Christmas tree and swirls. I used dimensionals to attached the tree. I'm also making a similar version of this (using Soft Sky instead of River Rock and different orientation) for my fellow volunteers, host families and students involved with AFS Katherine.

I can't believe there's only 10 days to go!!!

Butterfly Award - Thanks Leah!!

One time when I was able to access a computer while I was away, I was pleasantly surprised to find Leah had awarded me a Butterfly Award - thank you!! If you haven't already, check out Leah's blog - it's amazing (I love receiving your swaps Leah - my Summer Mini one is on the way) and she has a great monthly inspiration challenge.

Part of receveing the award is to forward this onto 10 other blogs. Most of the other blogs I visit have been awarded this in the past and they are all wonderful, but may I suggest you check out:

Kylie http://www.kyliestampinstuff.blogspot.com/

Nat http://www.happydaks.blogspot.com/

Check them out!!