Glimmermist and Wisteria

I haven’t had the chance to do much creating these past few days…it’s difficult for me to sit for too long at the moment :( It’s starting to drive me a bit crazy because I have a few good ideas I want to try out…at least I have them written down (with diagrams!) so that I won’t forget what I want to do. I did get a few moments the other day and had a little play with some Glimmermist and Maya Road chipboard (Butterflies and Bugs), as well as some Basic Grey bling. I was just messing around, trying to get a *feel* for the products but I made the cutest butterfly that I knew I had to do something with….enter Basic Grey Wisteria 6x6 DP and this is what I came up with:

(Who is surprised that I bought pink and purple Glimmermist?????)

The card base, ink for the sentiment and ribbon are Elegant Eggplant, the punched circle (1 1/4”) is Baja Breeze and the punched scallop circle is Sage Shadow. There are three different pieces of the Wisteria paper on the card…can you see them? These papers all blend together so well it’s hard to differentiate between them :) There is, of course, the background paper, then the scallop-y edge at the bottom comes from another piece and finally the punched circle (1 3/8”) behind the sentiment and the purple flower behind the butterfly are from the third piece. I just cut that purple flower out by hand and as it was right on the edge of the paper there is a little straight edge on the left…so I just put it right up against the edge of the BG paper and it looks so pretty IRL.  I did do some faux stitching around it with a white gel pen…but it’s kind of hard to see it :(

I just want to let you all know that I’m going to be taking the rest of the week off. Things are a little tough right now and I just need to get a lot of rest, so there is no guarantee that I would have much to post anyway :) I hope you all understand and still come to see me when I get back :) I will be here this weekend with something for you Saturday and the MDUC card on Sunday. I hope you all have a lovely week,

Dream a little dream…

I must apologise for my absence, unfortunately my back has decided that it doesn’t want to play nice right now and life has been a little…difficult :) Even though I haven’t made anything for days (getting withdrawals!) I thought that I should share some of my Dream mini book with you. I still have one page and the back cover to do, but I will show you some of what I have finished. I am so happy with the way this turned out and I don’t think it would have been possible to have more fun doing it! So, here are some of my favourite bits…

The first two photos are the cover and the inside of it. The rest of the photos are peaks of some of the embellishments in the book. The book itself is a Kaiser Key Plate album that I picked up a while ago at one of the online craft stores I shop at….I think it was Anna’s Craft Cupboard…they were having a sale of Kaiser stuff and I picked up a few different albums to play with. I’ve got a great square scalloped album that I plan to do next. Anyway, if you want to know where anything came from just ask in the comments ;) But I do have to warn you that a lot of the stuff I used in this album came from blog candy and RAK’s that people have so kindly sent me…like that chipboard crown in the last photo…it came from the lovely Lauren a while ago and I’ve been hoarding it for just the right project…thanks Miss Lauren :)

Now onto something completely different….on Monday I got a lovely parcel of goodies from Anna’s (there was another sale!) and in it was some Tattered Angels Glimmermist. My colour choices were heavily influenced by Heidi Swapp, who did a great tutorial on using it…it was on Ali Edwards blog here. I now NEED some masks and some Invisibles chipboard!!!!!

Anyway, my question is…have you ever used it??? If you have used it before and you have any useful tips or hints then PLEASE leave me a comment. I’ve had a little play with it, but I thought I’d ask you guys what you think of it and how you use it. So thanks in advance for your advice :)

OK, that’s it for today. If you are interested I’ll show you some more pics of the mini book, but hopefully I can get in and make something new very soon! Hope you all have a nice Thursday :)

I might be rather dangerous….

….if my brain actually functioned properly and didn’t decide that at random points in time it would promptly forget everything and go on vacation! Seriously!!!! I do have something of an excuse as I haven’t been feeling well…but I didn’t realise until about 11pm last night that I hadn’t done my post for MDUC for this week. Yes my friends…the card that I had made a week early because I forgot that we had switched to fortnightly challenges didn’t get posted on the proper day as I forgot that it was Sunday!!!! I am really going to have to get a big calendar up on the wall or something.  Anyway….enough of the excuses…here it is:

This week it was a colour challenge and you have a number of different combos to choose from….guess which one I chose????

• Pink, Brown and Cream/White
• Orange, Brown and Cream/White
• Blue, Brown and Cream/White

There’s not much to this card…very basic and simple really…but when you have such a cute Tilda to work with you don’t need alot!!!

I might be a bit hit and miss with regular appearances this week…over the weekend we lost a good family friend to the dreaded *C* word and I have promised to help by making little memorial booklets for the service on Thursday and I’m not really sure how much time I will have to be creative in other ways. What I should do is go and take pics of my mini book and feed you the pages one by one over the rest of the week…LOL!!!! I do hope to start sharing that tomorrow.

I hope you all have a lovely week,

No excuses…

…except for the one where I tell you that I have been having too much crazy fun making the mini-book that was inspired by Tracey’s blog candy???? It’s almost done and I will share pictures soon…but that will be a huge post as there’s so much to see…maybe 2 posts? Anyway you might get to see that tomorrow, depending on how I end up feeling later (I’ve been a bit ill this morning with a *tummy bug* {Australian euphemism…you work out what it means ;)}, but I hope I’m feeling better later on so I can get it finished). I wish you all could have as much fun as I have the past few days working on it. It’s so fat and delicious, with bits poking out the sides…and LOTS of glitter…LOL! I was eating dinner with Mama the other night and she suddenly broke out laughing…apparently I had a glitter moustache!!!!

Anyway, to make up for my prolonged absence I have THREE cards to show you and some pics of Jethro to boot!!! Let’s get started!

First up is this little cutie, who I believe is called Anya :) Tracey sent some stamped images in the blog candy and she seemed suitable, considering the weather lately!!! I coloured her with Copics and matted her onto some Pale Plum CS. The Celery layer is stamped with the Polka Dot BG stamp (SU) and the base card is Pixie Pink. I took the colours from that fab DP, which was also part of my blog candy winnings (yes, I am very lucky indeed!). The brads are Kaiser…Mama picked them up for me at the LSS last week. The sentiment is the ubiquitous *Best Yet* and finally the ribbon was pinced from Mama’s stash…maybe it was some of her blog candy winnings from Leslie????

I think this one qualifies for the UHC Pink Day challenge…right Leslie? It’s a mish-mash of stuff from all over the place. The *merci* and damask motif are both stickers…kindly sent to me by Lauren when she got a ton of them (you rock!!!), she also sent the crown which I have covered in Pink supernova glitter and added some pink Kaiser half-back pearls (part of my blog candy from Kirsty!). I also stuck the pearls all over the front of the card. The DP is Basic Grey, the card base is SU Pink Pirouette and the ribbon is SU Basic Gray (bit confusing, no?).

Finally, this watering can is one of my new Magnolia stamps and most of the bits and pieces on the card came from a card-making kit from Bizzy Becs.

Now what you’ve all been waiting for….a Jethro update :) I have to tell you that my cute and rather small little puppy has turned into a monster of a dog!!! I had no idea he was going to get sooooo big so fast! Although Jethro was supposedly the runt of the litter he is now apparently much larger than any of his siblings (I haven’t seen this for myself…just word of mouth). He is very well behaved for a puppy though. He hardly ever has *little accidents* now and lets me know when he needs to go outside. He loves to play with toys, as you will see from the photos. There are several boxes with toys for the kids stashed under the futon in the sunroom. Jethro has taught himself how to pull the boxes out and help himself to the toys! He particularly likes chewing the heads off Barbie dolls….maybe he’s a secret feminist???? Anyway, enough chat…here he is:

I know that the doll he’s trying to eat in this last pic is not Barbie…but see the poor headless, one legged Barbie there in front??? she’s all Jethro’s work!

These photos were taken just now. Check out his cute collar….I’ve had to adjust it 3 times now. When I first put it on him I had to punch 3 holes in it to get it to fit him…now he’s onto the original holes and by the look of him this morning I think it need adjusting again!!! He is so loving and sweet…he loves to just be near me and is asleep under the desk as I type.

OK, I’m going to go back to bed for a while…I really feel yucky. Sorry to the girls I was supposed to see in Toowoomba today…I just don’t want you all feeling as gross as I do…that’s just rude sharing your germs with others. I hope you all had a great time and NEXT TIME I will be there :)

Blessed

I’m not sure whether I told you all or not, but I was the one to win Tracey’s blog candy that I had pictured on my sidebar right at the top. Yesterday there was a knock at the door and it was the lovely Australia Post delivery man (who I see on a frighteningly regular basis!) with a pizza box and my name was right there on the front :) Inside it was the blog candy that Tracey had sent and let me just say that she is one very generous lady. I spent a good 20 mins looking through it all and ooohhhhing and aaaahhhhhing. I couldn’t wait for Mama to get home from work so I could show her all the loot! So thank you Tracey!!!! You totally rock :) I can’t believe how much gorgeous stuff you sent me and I have already made a card out of some of it(using one of the cutest Anya images that she stamped for me), and am about to embark on a cute mini-book because of how much this stuff inspired me!!!!

Want to see what I got???

This is the cute little card that came with my goodies. Now you can all understand what I mean about generous….the amount of DP (all 12x12) alone would have been awesome but all the rest of it too???? Too kind Tracey ♥

I know that I promised I would share photos of the craft room transformation yesterday, but I have to confess that there are still a few more things to be done before I can share. I haven’t mentioned this before, but Mama has been rather ill and it turns out that she has both a stomach ulcer and a hernia (which will need an operation to fix!!!). So we haven’t gotten as much done as we had hoped. But it will get there and I will share pictures as soon as I can….even if it’s not quite finished :)

Finally (long post today!) I wanted to share with you a cute card that I made…

The Tilda with the bee was a RAK from Kellie but the suitcase stamp is mine (insert evil laugh). The paper behind her is Baja Breeze DSP layered onto some blue Bazzil textured CS. The other DP is Urban Prairie and if you look closely you can see that there are 2 different yellow crochet trims that I appropriated from Mama’s stash :) The crochet flower is Laundry Line and the button came from Mama’s fab button collection, while the blue Prima was from Tracey. The base of the card is Baja Breeze.

I just love this card, and I love that there’s no sentiment…I thought perhaps I would write/stamp Bon Voyage inside…don’t know though.

I hope you’re all having a terrific Tuesday and I’ll catch you tomorrow ♥

Now for something completely different…

I don’t know about you guys, but I have a small obsession with decor blogs (as well as crafty ones). I think that there is a strong correlation between loving craft and being *into* home decorating. They are both ways in which we can express ourselves creatively and give ourselves an artistic outlet. They both demonstrate our personal style and tastes to others in a visual way and is often very indicative of our personality. But that’s just my opinion and I’d be more than happy to hear what you think about it. Do you read decor blogs? Do you read other kinds of blogs besides craft/stamping ones?

Anyway, today I was reading *From House to Home* and Michelle had a link to the HGTV quiz *What’s my style?*. I thought that it might be interesting, so I popped on over to take the quiz myself. All you have to do is choose from a selection of pictures that you think best represent your style and then they tell you what your style is (just in case you don’t know…LOL). Want to know what my style is??????

Your style is Romantic

Elegant yet relaxing. Luxurious fabrics, soft colors, fresh florals. Appeals to all the senses and sets a warm mood. My home has Romantic style.

 

I have to say that it’s pretty spot on. This is definitely what I love…lots of different textures in fabric from crisp white cotton to luxurious velvet and (fake) fur. Lovely soft, girly colours. Not so much of the florals in soft furnishings but definitely fresh flowers! Things that appeal to all the senses and set up a cozy, warm environment.

So, tell me…what’s your style?* Go on over to HGTV and do the quiz…it only takes a minute…then come back and let me know what your style is :) Go on, I’ll wait right here for you. I’m really very curious whether or not you think that the quiz result represents you or not. And if you are as interested in decor as I am.

*PS: you have to be a member at HGTV to take the quiz, but it only takes a minute to sign up and you never know when you might need the fabulous inspiration you can find there :)

oops…

…I made a bit of a mistake when I said on Friday that I would be back today with the MDUC card for this week…I had forgotten that Kellie has changed the schedule to every two weeks and this is an off week. The card is actually not due until next Sunday..so I’m done really early for once :)

Instead I’ll show you this quick card I whipped up last night just ‘cause I was in the mood :) I used this cool Magnolia Stamps house that I bought from a nameless friend who was purging her Magnolia collection *wink*:

The trim and DP are both from Mama’s stash, the sentiment is from the hostess set *Best Yet* (best sentiment set ATM) The CS is Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I stamped the house in Close to Cocoa and coloured parts of it with the Cocoa marker. Not much else to it really. It took all of 15 mins including interruptions!

I hope you are all having a great weekend and I will see you tomorrow :)

Crazy for Cupcakes

 

When the new catty came out in April the one of the first sets I wanted was Crazy for Cupcakes and the matching wheel. I had seen so many cute cards made with this set that I just HAD to have it! So today I thought I’d share a couple of cards that I made with it. These cards are for my friend Helene…when I first took up stamping as a hobby she thought it was funny. She’s not the patient type and she’s far too practical to spend all the time and effort making pretty cards when there’s much more *useful* things she could be doing :) Anyway, last year I sent her a set of cards in a cute box for her birthday. She has two primary school aged kids and there’s always a birthday party to go to…but now she’s run out and has requested some more :) I haven’t converted her to stamping, but she does appreciate having cute, unique birthday cards to give to others…LOL!

OK, enough blathering….onto the cards:

This one uses Sweet Always paper and some pretty bright colours….even Pumpkin Pie (I know!). Obviously this one is for a girl :)

Actually, so is this one. The sentiment came from some DP that I got in my blog candy win from Kirsty. I just cut out the sentiment I wanted and layered it onto some Pixie Pink CS. The ribbon on both of these cards is Regal Rose wide grosgrain. The images were stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with markers.

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend. I will be back on Sunday with my Magnolia Challenge card :)

More DSP cards…

See, I told you that my new *schedule* would encourage me to post more regularly :) Today I have another 2 cards to show you. I’m pretty sure that I haven’t shared these with you before….but it’s a while since I made them. They are cards that I made when I was *trying out* all the new DSP that I had bought when the get one free sale was on. The first one uses the gorgeous Pink Flamingo DSP. I didn’t really love this when I saw it in the catalogue, but Mama liked it and wanted it as one of the packs we split, so I forced myself make something with it…

I cut around the flamingo and his birdie friend and stuck them on top of another piece from the pack. The layers were mounted on a Pacific Point layer and a Cameo Coral card base. The ribbon is also Pacific Point, which technically is not one of the matching colours….but I wanted to use that blue Supernova glitter on the On Board letters and it seemed a better match than Turquoise (I think that’s my reasoning at the time….it was a while ago!).

Next up is a simple little card I made with the yummy, yummy Candy Lane DSP:

This was sooooooo simple….cut out the section on the page with the birdies on it, layer that onto some Choc Chip, stick some striped DSP on a Pink Pirouette card base and quickly stamp and punch out the sentiment and it was done! I think it looks a little nekkid, but I don’t want to distract from those cute birdies, so I guess it will stay that way.

Today I am going to try and finish pretty-ing up a cork board for the craft room and try and finish the desk caddy too. I hope all the little finishing touches will be complete and I can show it to you over the weekend or by Monday at the latest. Mama is working, so it’s up to me to get the final touches done ;) It’s actually been a lot of work, but the end result is really worth it. Mama is spending a lot of time in there where it’s nice and warm during the day and I love the new organisation of all her supplies…I can find everything I need so quickly and easily now. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

I hope you have a great Thursday and I’ll be back soon :)

Sweet Tildas

See, I told you I’d be right back :) I have made quite a few things recently that I haven’t showed you yet….and yes I have been slack with the posting, but I hope that a new routine will help me to find the time to post everyday again. I was going to share one of these yesterday, but when I went to take a picture of them, all of my rechargeable camera batteries were dead and I had to wait til they were charged before I could take the photos. I still haven’t found the perfect picture taking place here at Mama’s, but I’m working on it. Anyway, here are the cards:

This first one uses the cute Tilda with a basket of flowers. Kellie stamped me one of these that I used on Mama’s Mother’s Day card and we both liked it so much that Mama bought it, but she’s good at sharing :) The CS is Ruby Red and Sweet Slumber specialty paper, with a snippet of Whisper White for the sentiment. I used the Full Heart punch, a red rhinestone brad and some Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon for embellishment.

This is Shy Tilda and her colours are So Saffron and Baja Breeze with a touch of riding Hood ribbon and red glitter on the Sticky Cuts heart. More of the yummy Sweet Slumber paper here too…love the clouds! I think that’s my favourite of all of these papers. The button is Baja Breese and tied up with some crochet cotton.

Both Tildas were stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with a mixture of mediums…ink for the lids of the pads, markers, a blender pen and aquapainter. You’ll definitely be seeing more of these two sweet girls, as well as a couple of new accessories stamps very soon.

OK, that’s it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday (especially you Jean!) and I’ll be back soon….promise :)

Blog candy winner!

Just a quick post to let you all know that the winner of the blog candy is Jean who said:

Hi Kristie, I have been a follower of your blog for a while and admire all you do!
I think any kind of blog candy would be fun but any embellishments like ribbon, flowers, brads etc. would make wonderful candy!

June 1, 2009 3:01 PM

You should go check out Jean’s blog if you are not familiar with her work…she can even make that dreadful sock monkey look cute!!!!!

I should also tell you all that I even used random.org to choose the winner….there were 20 comments and I have 31 followers so I put in to choose between 1 and 51 and it choose the #2…I counted the comments first, so that was Jean. Thank you all for playing along with the giveaway….I should do this more often as a way of getting rid of more stuff…LOL!

Actually, it doesn’t work very well at lessening my stash, because I won Tracey’s great blog candy that’s there at the top of the sidebar….so some goes out and more comes in :) That’s the second blog candy I’ve won since coming back to Warwick….maybe it’s a lucky place for me. Oh yeah, and Mama has won one too….so it’s luck all round at our place!!!!!

I’ll be back a bit later to show you a couple of cards with new Tildas and some Sweet Slumber specialty paper…just need to take pics and edit them first :)

All About A Boy…

I really have to stop apologizing all the time…but I’m so sorry to have gone missing…it’s that darned real life getting in the way of my blogging!!!! When I lived in Sydney I didn’t really know very many people or have much of a social life! It’s different here…all my family is close by and I see them regularly…last night Mama and I even babysat for Shaun and Michelle and had little Abby for a sleepover :) She was so adorable and cute as can be! But time consuming!!!!

Anyway, enough of the excuses :) I’m leaving the comments on the blog candy post open until Tuesday night…if you haven’t left a comment you have until then and I shall draw the winner on Wednesday morning and post it then….promise ;)

OK…you’re probably wondering about the post title, right? Well it’s the theme for this week’s Magnolia Down Under challenge! It doesn’t seem to be up on the blog just yet…I must be early for once!!! Anyway, here’s the card that I made…

I’ve used a rather unusual colour combo for this one…Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze and Pacific Point! The colours were inspired by Edwin’s clothes…which I coloured with markers and ink from the lid of the ink pads and used both an aquapainter and a blender pen to achieve the look I was after. The stripey Choc Chip and the Baja Breeze polka dot are both from the single colour Designer Series Prints. These papers are all so nice and it’s great having just the right colour DSP when you need it :) The sentiment is from Crazy for Cupcakes and that cute button is one of the few I have left from the Button Bouquet.

I guess that’s about it for now. I’m going to go play and try to catch up a bit with my 52Q…I am woefully behind and if I don’t do some soon I’ll be too far behind to ever catch up. It’s so much fun doing the questions that I really don’t want to give up now.

Hope your Sunday is sunny and warm and most of all, relaxing :)

How Very Exciting!!!

When I published that last post I checked my blog counter and found that I have gone past 20,000 hits!!! Can you believe that??? When I started this blog I had no idea that anyone would ever read it except for Madonna (and she has to ‘cause she’s my sister!). To have reached such a milestone is very exciting for me. I would love to do a giveaway…but as most of my stuff is packed up I am not sure what to offer…..

So leave a comment on this post to be in the running to win some blog candy! I will think about it today and tomorrow I will let you know what you could win :) Probably some stamped Magnolia images, some DSP (‘cause I have a ton of that!) and maybe some buttons and ribbons and stuff like that. So leave me a comment telling me what you would like to see in the blog candy and you might just win it :)

Edited to add: If you become a follower of my blog you will get an extra entry into the giveaway and all current followers will get an extra entry too...so make sure you leave a comment to have 2 chances to win :)

More Urban Oasis

You may remember that I told you last week (I think) that I had set myself a challenge to see how many different cards I could make with the limited supplies of the Urban Oasis DSP, 5th Ave Floral stamp set, other sentiment stamps and the matching CS and inks. I got started and had made 2 cards before I was interrupted by the delivery of NEW SU! goodies. Well, this idea had been stuck in my brain and I wasn’t going to be happy until I had finished what I started :) So I sat down and made some more cards…4 actually and all in one sitting! It probably took about an hour to make these 4 cards and I know that with these supplies I could make sooooo many more. It just goes to show that you really don’t need a lot of stuff to make nice cards! Though lots and lots of STUFF is GOOD :)

Anyway, here are the cards that I made….the last one is my favourite and the one that took the most time!!!

The rose image was stamped 3 times in VersaMark and embossed with silver. I then cut out the various layers and popped them up with dimensionals. In real life it is sooooo pretty!

I have to apologise for the bad quality of my photos today….I don’t know what’s going on!!! OK, I just looked at my camera and it was on the wrong setting!!!!!! But I am way too lazy to take the pictures again, so sorry but you’ll just have to put up with these ones :(

So, as you can see you can get totally different styles of card just using the same *ingredients*….it helps that 5th Ave is such a versatile set…this is one that’s going to be staying with me for a long, long time for sure!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday (LOL) and get to do something fun and creative :)