Going away…

…but not too far :) Just a couple of hours down the road to Madonna’s house for some fun family time. I’m going to be there with her until the middle of next week. Hopefully I will find the time to blog about some of our crafty adventures…but there’s no guarantee :) I might just be too busy learning how to use her new nestabilities (birds and butterflies!!!) or even just getting lots of lovely hugs and kisses from the kids ;)

I will be back on Sunday with this week’s MDUC card, but until then I thought I’d share a card I made last week.

The main flower image is from SU’s Playful Petals, while the butterfly, flower and chipboard letters are from Ruby Rock-it and are from one of my favourite birthday presents. Apart from having to cut out the flower parts, this card was super quick and easy to make. The self-adhesive chipboard makes it really easy to create the wow factor on a card with very little effort ;)

I haven’t made much this week…my mojo is MIA and I’m hoping that some creative fun at Madonna’s is going to help bring it back! I know that creativity seems to come in cycles…sometimes it’s easy to be creative and other times, well there’s nothing in the tank. I guess it depends on a lot of things, but lately my tank has been pretty low. Hopefully a change of scenery and some time with my super creative sister will help me out.

OK, better go finish getting ready. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you on Sunday for MDUC.

I ♥ blog candy…

Then again I’m sure you all love some blog candy :) So, want to try and win some really awesome candy? All you have to do is go to Bec’s new challenge blog by clicking on the picture below and check out the *rules*…

Want to see what you could win?

 

Oh yeah…there’s some Mega Nestabilities in there (if I win I’ll have a very good excuse to buy a Cuttlebug or something similar!) Not to mention all the other lovely goodies!

Bec and Cheryl are also looking for TWO Design Team members for the new challenge blog…so if you’re interested in that you can check out the sketch and the details on the new blog Creatalicious Challenges.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend. I’ll be back tomorrow with something new to share….see you then :)

Still reading…

I am just in the mood at the moment…all I want to do is curl up and read. I am now onto my fourth book in 4 days!!! That’s the only problem with being a fast reader…you go through so many books when the urge comes over you :) Yesterday I read the new Jeffrey Deaver book, Roadside Crosses. Very twisty and tricky…but that’s Deaver for you :) The day before I read the book Lauren sent me for my birthday, The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. I stayed up til 1am to finish that one…and it was totally worth the lost sleep :) Thanks Lauren!  Finally, the name of the book I was talking about in the last post is *The Athena Factor* by W. Michael Gear. It was published in 2005 and I picked it up from the cheapie book stand in Big W. It’s all about genetics and the cult of celebrity…it was a great read by an excellent writer, but I don’t know if it would be easy to find.

So, enough about what I’m reading…I found a couple of things I’ve made and haven’t shared, so today I’ll share one of them with you and hopefully I will find some time to try and get creative later on today.

This is one of the Anya’s that Tracey sent me. I coloured her with Copics and used some of the lovely papers she also sent me in the blog candy…I think this one is an Amy Butler print. The button came from Mama’s stash and the sentiment is from the Soft Summer set which will be available in the Spring mini. That gorgeous scalloped oval punch is in that new mini too…you NEED this punch BTW, it’s gorgeous!

OK, gotta go…my little nephew just arrived and I need cuddles ;)

Unplugged…

Yesterday I did not turn my computer on ALL day!!! It began because the painters had part of a trestle coming in through the door and taking up the space where my desk chair usually is. So after going shopping with Mama for about an hour, I came home and settled onto my bed to read until the painters had finished. The funny thing is that the book I was reading was so good that I had to keep going…I needed to find out what happened!!! So much so that I finally finished reading at 12.30am…that is one heck of a story!!!!

I can’t tell you how much I really enjoyed being unplugged for the day. I haven’t been reading much since I’ve been home….a delayed reaction to 6 years of reading all the time for study…when I stopped I just didn’t want to read anything…not even for fun! But yesterday cured me of that. It was so lovely to be completely absorbed into the story, to be taken to a world so different from my own and thrown into the action, to be so taken over by the story & so very attached to the characters that I was sad when the story ended…I wanted more!

So, why am I telling you all this??? Well, it’s because I haven’t created anything for days…I’m not sure where my mojo went, but I suspect that it was taking a few well deserved vacation days :) I’ve coloured a few images, but when it came to making a card…nada! So today I’m going to show you the final thing that I made for Mama’s new craft room…I only finished it last week because we were looking for the perfect trim to finish it off and Mama found it while she was on holidays at the Sunshine Coast with a friend…and it was absolutely perfect. So, what is this mystery item? A cork board…but not just any old cork board…

Close up of the lovely rose trim.

This last pic shows where it’s hanging in the room…and it looks great. It started off as a $5 cork board from the Reject Shop (discount type store for my US readers), very plain and boring. But some primer & pink wall colour brightened up the frame & the fabric came from Mama’s quilting stash and was just attached with spray adhesive.

So for under $10 Mama now has a gorgeous cork board to display her cards (or whatever) in the craft room. Plus it only took about an hour altogether to make it (not including drying time for the paint)…so you can see that it’s so easy to make a cork board that matches your room without spending much at all. I have plans for an even larger version in my craft room when I get my own place…I even have the fabric all picked out ;)

And just quickly before I go back to reading another book….here’s a kind of blurry photo of Jethro…I am holding him down because he wouldn’t hold still for the camera (it looks bad!). The reason is that he went sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong and ended up with paint all over himself…

He looks so silly :)

This one is just for the expression on his face…*OMG, are you taking MORE photos?????* LOL!

OK, gotta go read some more…hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.

Christmas in July

Hey there, and welcome to another MDUC Sunday. This week’s theme was chosen by the lovely Kellie. With the chilly weather a lot of people celebrate Christmas in July by cooking up a *proper* Christmas feast…we’re only celebrating by cooking up some really early Christmas cards featuring Magnolia stamps :)

I actually struggled a bit with this one and the card I’m going to share is V2.0…the first one was…well, a bit OTT, even for a Christmas card…LOL. I used a Christmas scrapping kit that I bought very cheaply on sale a couple of weeks back, so I don’t know who makes the DP or anything….but there was more than enough goodies in there to make 20 Christmas cards! So, enough of the blather….here’s the card:

The presents, stars and Santa sign are all stickers (I know!!!!), the bench is my stamp but the Tilda was a RAK from Kellie. The trees through the *window* are SU’s Lovely as a Tree and the sentiment comes from *The Best Yet*. There’s some Dazzling Diamonds on the massive flower…what’s Christmas without a bit of sparkle? Oh yeah, this card is BIG…an A4 sheet folded in half…I needed to make it huge to fit my idea…so someone’s going to get a massive card this Christmas :)

OK, I’m off to play with Jethro :) I’m teaching him to fetch…he has mastered the fact that he’s supposed to chase the ball and pick it up, he’s just not great at bringing it back to me! I sometimes think that he looks at me as if to say, “If you want the ball, why do you keep throwing it away???”  Maybe he’s too smart to be good at fetch???

I hope your Sunday is restful and sweet,

Pun Fun Birthdays

When Helene asked me to make her some kids birthday cards I knew just the stamps I wanted to use, at least for some of them, and that was Pun Fun. I bought it because I thought that it would be good for just this sort of thing, but until now it had never seen ink! When I first started stamping I couldn’t believe it when people said they had stamps that they had never used…I just couldn’t imagine having that many stamps! Now I am that person….strange! Anyway, back to the cards. I just picked out some DP that was bright and colourful and went for it :) I kept it pretty simple, because I know most of these cards will eventually end up in the bin…but I still had to have some embellishment!

These will soon be on their way to Helene, along with a couple of others & the Teacher’s Pet stamp set for her birthday. (she’s a teacher and I figure it’s a sneaky way to get her stamping…LOL)

Just before I go I want to share with you this adorable photo of Jethro. Yesterday I noticed that one of his ears was starting to stand up, but the other was still floppy…it looked so cute I had to take a photo:

How cute is my baby????

OK, gotta go…hope you all have a fantastic Friday :)

I am blessed…

It sounds a little trite, but it’s true :) This birthday has shown me just how many lovely friends I’ve made since I started this blogging adventure, and now the Australia Post delivery guy thinks I am super popular ;) Today’s thanks go to the lovely Miss June, who sent me a lovely card and some more crafty goodies.

I want to share with you all the lovely goodies I received and to say another thank you to all of you who helped make this birthday so special.

In no particular order….thanks Lauren:

Thanks Leslie,

Thanks June,

Thanks Kay,

Finally, thanks to Madonna and Mama for these sweet goodies,

And especially to Tom for picking this out for me,

This was his second choice, after Mad nixed the bright pink nail polish he’d chosen :) I just love it ♥

I’m sorry for bragging, but I wanted to thank everyone and show them all how much I loved the gifts. It is astonishing that people on the other side of the world, that I have never met in person, would be so kind as to send me such thoughtful and wonderful gifts…but that’s the beauty of blogging, you make the nicest friends :) Plus I’ve got a pretty awesome family too! I should have taken a photo of the delicious and HUGE dark purple bath sheets that Mama got for me too…they are divine!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with some of the cards I’ve made for Helene. See you then,

A bit of this & a bit of that…

Today I have to thank both Lauren and Leslie for the lovely birthday gifts that arrived today! Nothing like having your birthday go a bit longer :) I will share them in a post later this week, along with all my other birthday deliciousness.

I’ve got 2 cards to share with you today…the first being Miss Lauren’s birthday card. She has already posted it on her blog, so I thought I’d share it here:

There’s lots of bits and pieces in this one…Basic Grey DP, SU punches, ribbon and CS, as well as the felt flowers and sentiment stamp. The button is a random find from Mama’s enormous button collection :)

This next card is one that I made with the chipboard owl from SU’s *On Board So Tweet*. I’m not completely happy with this one…it feels as though it’s lacking something…

The DSP is Ski Slope, the ribbon is Vanilla/Kiwi Kiss double sided satin and the sentiment is from Oval All and backed with the Scalloped Oval punch (loving that one!!!) I covered the owl in DSP and then sprayed him with some Glimmermist in Tattered Leather…in real life he’s all shimmery and pretty. Maybe it needs something down the right hand side….let me know what you think it needs…please?

I’ve been busy, busy, busy the past couple of days making a set of kids birthday cards for my best friend, Helene. She has two primary school kids who are always going to birthday parties and needs a whole pile of kids cards…which is proving more challenging than I thought. I don’t want to put a lot of *stuff* on them, because I’m certain they will end up in the bin, but I don’t want them to look scummy either….

OK, I’m off to enjoy some of my birthday goodies….I hope you all have a great Tuesday,

Mojo Monday #94

Before I do anything else I would like to say a big thank you to all of you who commented on the craft room makeover. Mama is tickled that you all think she’s so clever and that you all had such nice things to say about her room and all the hard work she put into it. The difference between the old room and the new is astronomical…it is such a pleasure that (for now at least) I have such a lovely space to play in, not to mention that it makes me happy that Mama will always have such a beautiful space to create in.

Secondly, thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday. I had a wonderful day, which began with the very surprising birthday blog hop for me, organised magnificently by the bestest sister in the whole universe, Madonna. Thanks honey!!!!! And to all my PSFs that participated….thank you all for being such wonderful friends and for making this birthday one that I will remember for ever. It might just qualify for the *best birthday present* list :) So thank you Lauren, June, Leslie, Nikki, Kristy, Kellie and Paula…you guys are the best!!!!!!

OK, now onto the Mojo Monday card! This is the sketch...it looks a bit tricky at first, but it turned out to be super easy to work with!

And here’s the card I made:

The colours came from the *Parisian Breeze* specialty papers…Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. The birdie is from *Friends 24-7* and the sentiment is from *Great Friend* (love the fonts!), while the ribbon is from the *Valet* ribbon originals. (I bought it for the Choc Chip polka dot…but thought it might be a bit much with the polka dot papers…LOL)

Just quickly before I go….I want to say thanks to Kay who sent me the most beautiful card (purple) and a lovely parcel of goodies that I would have picked for myself….Kay, they are just perfect! I will share them with you in another post next week with all the other crafty goodness that I got for my b’day!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Craft Room revealed…

I decided that it would be a nice surprise for Mama to come home to a craft room without all of MY stuff everywhere, and so I got busy and tidied it up. Actually there was very little that needed to be done other than remove my stuff….LOL! So, here it is…before & after:

 

This is the only before I am going to show you. I will say that there was a LOT of furniture in this room…a single bed, a wardrobe, a bedside table, a chest of drawers (rather large) and of course Mama’s craft table, which was just a folding table. This is what it looked like after everything was taken out and the old carpet ripped up.

This is what it looks like now….

This last photo is the opposite end of the room from the French doors. There is another chair to come in here, but it needs to be repainted first.

I have to tell you that Mama did most of the work all by herself..all the painting, ripping up the old carpet, moving furniture…she’s amazing :) I was in charge of making cups of coffee and bringing glasses of water…something which I excel at! LOL  I did help to put some of the furniture together…an interesting enterprise that! Someone should tell those people that their instructions suck!!!!

There it is, finally! The craft room in all it’s prettiness! I know Mama would love to know what you all think. Now that it’s all clean and tidy I feel this overwhelming urge to go make something and mess it all up again…..

See you tomorrow with the Mojo Monday card.

Finally…

I really need to pick up some new rechargeable batteries for my camera…these ones are loosing their charge very quickly and taking forever to recharge! That’s why I had to wait til this morning to share my Jethro pics with you. There’s actually only two that aren’t completely blurry and horrible…that dog finds it very hard to stand still at the best of times, but bring out the camera and he’s jumping around like a lunatic!

The first picture is an absolute miracle in itself…I clicked at just the right time to catch him standing still, staring at Pokey Puppy. Half a second later he had bounded off to see what Pokey was doing…but at least I got my shot!

This one is Jethro about to try and get up on my lap…yes, he still thinks he’s a baby who should get lovely lap snuggles…problem is he just doesn’t fit!!!! You can see that his eyes are still blue…I think they’re going to stay that colour. And did you notice just how HUGE his feet are now??? They were NOT like that when I got him!!! I found out yesterday that his mother had TEN puppies…half of them with Jethro’s colouring and the other half were black. I’m glad I got Jethro…he’s so pretty…LOL!

And very quickly, before I go, this is the reason I can’t show you photos of the craft room….my stuff is everywhere!!!!!

Just keeping it real…..LOL!!! Really, as soon as I tidy up a bit I will take photos to share. I’m just in the middle of 6 different projects and have stuff everywhere (see the owl Leslie?) The truth is that if I picked up all MY stuff and put it somewhere else (I need a *Other Room* of my own…lol) then the room would be completely presentable. So I shall try and do that this afternoon…it might be a nice surprise for Mama to come home to a clean and tidy craft room :)

I’ll be back later with my Mojo Monday card…as soon as I find it in all that mess and take a photo :)