Pretty Mother's Day

Hello again!

Wow! Where has the past year gone? I'm back at work next Mon :( and my baby girl turns one at the end of the month.

I have been busy making Mother's Day cards recently, and the cute pic over at The Paper Players inspired this one I'm sharing with you today.

This is the first time I inked up Simply Soft using Blushing Bride and Regal Rose, and I'm really happy with the result!

If I don't get to post again before Sunday - Happy Mother's Day!!

Thanks for visiting!

Another 1

We had two first birthday parties in two days this weekend, so here's another #1 card for you! This time for a gorgeous little girl. I think this is the start of a long party season so watch this space for lots of #1 and #6 cards this year :)

I used this weeks latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, the cake (with one candle of course) from the Pretty Princess stamp set, and some old Candy Lane DSP for inspiration. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but I also added some sparkle to the candle and a couple of the cake layers.

Thanks for visiting - I hope you had a great weekend!

...one...

I cannot believe how quickly time is passing by these days. We celebrated a friend's little boy's 1st birthday today, and when we were chatting realised we haven't caught up since before Christmas! All our children are growing and changing at a phenomenal rate, and before I know it my own baby girl will be turning 1.... and my big girl will be 6...

For the birthday boy's card, I used the fabulous colour challenge from Color Throwdown:

I realised I haven't been stamping much on my cards of late (loving embossing and die cuts!), so thought I'd challenge to include a bit more stamping. It wasn't much, but at least it's more than a greeting :)

The little man of the moment had a great party, his Mum loved the card and both my girls were alseep within 10 mins of leaving the party, so I'd class that as a fabulous day!


Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Buttons, Buttons, Buttons

I have a bit of a bright card on offer for you today, and I think it's quite cute! This card actually turned out not much at all like I had in my head when I first sat down at my craft desk...Almost every aspect of it apart from the colour of the base card is different!

When I first saw the following sketch from Taylored Expressions, I wasn't quite sure where to go with it. I made another card based on this sketch using circles, but wasn't 100% happy with the colours.... so, I pulled it out again for this card.

My inspiration stemmed from a container of Big Buttons I have on my shelf from last year's Summer Mini - love those bright colours! - and I teamed it with the co-ordinating Sweet Stitches DSP. After a bit of swapping and changing of the size of the buttons, and whether I'd use Melon Mambo butterflies or buttons, here's the final result!

Thanks for visiting and have a great rest of the week.

Retro Stars

Hello again! I hope you've had a relaxing weekend - it has been a lot cooler here and a bit wet, so we took our girls down to watch the Todd River flowing yesterday (for those of you overseas, the Todd River is a dry river through Alice Springs and only flows rarely - it hasn't flowed for 18 months); it was the first time for the little one seeing it flow. Today I've been able to spend a bit of time at my craft desk - yay!

I haven't played along with ColourQ or Stampin' Royalty for a while, but this week's challenges were perfect for a fun 4 year old boys card; great retro colours from ColourQ, and 'Dressing Down (No Embellishments)' from Stampin' Royalty.

I have been wanting to try 'fully embossed panels', so I adhered the stars to the background panel before running the whole panel through the Big Shot. I'm really happy with the effect (this is actually the second card I did today with this!) - no embellishements required!!

Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

Birthday Princess

I found another blog challenge recently, Simply Stampin' Challenge, and have finally been able to play along! The challenge this week was a gorgeous colour combo - perfect for a girly birthday card.

One of Miss L's friend's is turning 6 next week, and she is very girly and loves everything pink and princess (just like my big girl), so here's what I came up with - appropriately pink, lots of sparkle and a crown on the cake to make it a princess :) MissL Loves it, so hopefully so will the birthday girl!

Thanks for visiting!

Simple Thanks

Don't fall off your chair. Yes! It's another post from me! I think my mojo has decided to return, and it certainly helps that my little one had a total of 3 1/2 hours sleeping today! Yay!

I have still been blog hopping during my absence from posting and came across Freshly Made Sketches. You know I'm always up for a challenge and inspiration, so I decided to play along this week with this fantastic sketch. I'll be using this one again.

A friend requested a nice thank you card, so I started with the sketch and the Everday Enchantment paper available through Sale-a-Bration and took it from there - it all fell together nicely! A little bit of Very Vanilla velvet ribbon, the jewellery tag punch and the fabulous lace ribbon border punch and it was done! My friend has given the nod of approval, so all is good.

Have a great week and thank you for visiting!

Three T-Rexs

Hello again!

Apologies for the lack of postings again - I am seriously in awe of those of you who have two or more children and still manage to find time to indulge your passions :) I have managed to squeeze in some time over the past couple of days to finish some long overdue projects.

Today I have used the latest Sweet Sunday Sketch to make a card for my godson (not sure if I'll get it in for the challenge on time though....) HAD to use Dinoroar for him and of course his age is an important addition at three! I pulled the colours from the DSP, used the new 1" square and postage stamp punches for the dinos and faux sueded some Baja Breeze for the panel.

Thanks for visiting
Hope you have a great weekend!

Fish Kisses

Wow, doesn't time fly? I hope you all had a wonderful Festive Season, and that 2012 is treating you well thus far. We had a lovely trip away visiting and family and friends, and I didn't realise how many activities we participated in until I printed all my photos today - it was a lot!! Hopefully I'll be able to get some scrapbooking done soon to share the memories with you.

Valentine's Day is almost upon us, and many of the challenge blogs have Valentine's/love themes, including Stampin' Royalty. Due to being away, it has been quite some time since I've been able to sit down at my craft desk and participate in a challenge, but that has mow changed. I think it's a bit cute, and Luana came up with the title of Fish Kisses :)

We used a window shade with a fish on it while we were away, which inspired my punch art fish for this card. These little fishies were made using the Ornament, 5 Petal Flower, Small Heart and Owl (for the eyes) punches; the ends of the fins have been popped up with dimensionals.

Must head to bed, but hopefully I'll be able to share a few more projects with you over the next few months.

Thanks for visiting!
Natasha

A Little Christmas

Hello!

I'm really not sure where time disappears to these days.... my baby is almost 6 months old and my big girl only has 3 weeks left of Preschool!

Whilst I've been busy with life in general, I have been making a few cards; I have a new page on Facebook too (Natasha's Creations - look for the mermaid card) that I've been posting too a bit more than here.

Today, I wanted to share with you a Christmas card I made for a recent workshop - super simple but I think it looks really effective.

Must be off to bed, but enjoy and have a great week!

Thanks for visiting

Just Add .... Baby

The challenge this week over at Just Add Ink is Just Add.... Baby. My baby is the whole reason I haven't been crafting much lately :) But, I thought I'd share with you the thank you card I made for the midwife who helped welcome our darling Bethanie into the world - she was fabulous!

I used the Clean and Simple Fall To Layout 140 and pulled the colours from the Nursery Necessities DSP - with Pretty in Pink as the base colour of course! The little bodysuit from the (now retired) hostess set A Slice of Life is a bit cute and a couple of buttons next to the Family Phrases greeting just add that little something.

Thanks for visiting and hopefully I'll have a bit more to share with you soon!

Mermaid Punchart

Hello!

I did not realise it has been 2 months since my last post. Being a Mum of 2 is certainly keeping me busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) My little cherub is now 3 months old, and my big girl is 5!! I don't know where the time has gone. Here they are:

We have had a lot of birthdays to celebrate over the last couple of months, and I must confess I am running VERY behind with the cards. I have been managing to get cards made for the parties Luana has been invited to though... It's just the cards I have to post that are incredibly belated...

This card today was inspired by the latest Just Add Ink challenge Just Add.... Something from your stash, as well as the birthday theme of Under the Sea (or more specifically, mermaids!). I pulled out my Trip Flower Punch (which I haven't used until now) and Soft Sky cardstock and ink for the challenge. I tried to look for a punch art mermaid online, but only found one which didn't really fit with what I had in my head, so I managed to put together this lovely lady. She was a little fiddly (with the scallops for scales) but must say I am rather pleased with her! And the birthday girl loved her too which was most important!

Must be off and try to get something productive done before bed.

Thanks for visiting!

Rock'n'Roll Melon Mambo Butterflies

I must apologise for my lack of blogging this month - but I have a great excuse! I had a very successful night at my craft desk the last weekend of May and had every intention of photographing and posting the cards on the Monday, but instead I welcomed our second beautiful daughter into the world - Bethanie. Since then, I've been caught up being a Mum-of-two and not knowing where time disappears to!

Here's our gorgeous girl at one week old - I don't know where the last month has gone! If you would like to see more photos of my cherub, check out this post at Katrina Barr Photography's blog.

I have managed to make a few cards, and made tonight's last weekend for a little friend of Luana's birthday. The girly colours and 'garden' inspiration courtesy of the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge were just perfect, and the flowers in the (rotated) Inkspirations sketch suited the rock'n'rolled butterflies brilliantly.

Not going to write a long post this time - must try to make the most of the time I can get to the craft desk while Bethanie is sleeping and I'm not!!

Thanks for visiting,

Natasha

Super Cool

I guess there is an advantage to playing the waiting game at home on maternity leave, and that's being able to have a bit more time for crafting (in between naps and being a SAHM again that is!). This 6x6" page allowed me to play along with two challenge blogs I love but have not had the time or energy to play along with for SO long - Just Add Ink and Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.

This page is for Paul and I used the lovely cool colours of this week's JAI challenge to complement the "Super Cool" title and the layout from SSSC was perfect - thanks! I love this photo of Paul and Luana. They were playing around with their sunnies one day, being "Super Cool", hence the title!

I kept it quite simple - I don't like 'crowding' my little pages and the sparkly thickers accents worked well I think. I was thinking there needed to be something in the bottom left corner, but after a few days, I think I'm happy with how it is... After all, a very wise crafter once said "if you keep fussing with a project, leave it!" (thanks Karen G!).

Have to do the preschool run in a bit, but hopefully I'll get a bit more done at my craft desk before then.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Tidy Alphabet (retired)

Card: Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum, Pear Pizzazz Patterns DSP, Whisper White

Ink: Perfect Plum, Baja Breeze

Other: Scallop Edge Punch, Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon, Thickers Alphas (non-SU), paper piercer

Two Little Birdies

Spring has Sprung in the Northern Hemisphere (although it's getting colder here - single digits most nights, but I guess that's what you get living in the desert!) and the girls over at Stampin' Royalty are celebrating by having a bird themed challenge. I don't have many bird stamps, but I do have the two-step bird punch which I haven't used much... so I thought I would share this darling card that I made for my Auntie's recent engagement. Being birds, it also fits with this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge - In the Garden.

I kept it quite simple ans was inspired by the colours from the Elegant Soiree DSP - Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede. I punched out two birdies and mirrored them (ie used the opposite sides of the DSP for the bodies and wings) and popped them up with dimensionals over a second generation stamped Baja Breeze flourish from the SAB set Bliss. The greeting was from the Summer Mini set, Well Scripted and that's the hardest parts of the card! I also sponged the Very Vanilla with Baja Breeze and distressed the Soft Suede to soften the overall look of the card.

Hope you're having a great weekend wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Bliss (retired), Well Scripted (retired)

Card: Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Elegant Soiree DSP

Ink: Baja Breeze, Soft Suede

Other: Two-step Bird Punch