Anything but a card…

That’s the theme for this fortnight’s Magnolia Down Under Challenge. The sponsor for this fortnight’s challenge is

and if you win, you get a fabulous prize from them

It was so much fun to step out of the box for this one and make a little *Get Well* tin. The tin itself, as well as the gorgeous Crate Paper, came from a kit Madonna got at a Craft Show make and take for me. (Thanks Mad!) Ok, enough blather, here it is:

You could use these little tins for all kinds of fun gifts, or to keep for yourself to store pretty things in :)

Ok, hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. I will catch up with you all soon,

Really simple…

….because I still haven’t found my Mojo :) Mama asked me to emboss some roses in different colours for her and I happened to think that silver on Basic Gray would look awesome…and I think it does.

Of course my photo doesn’t do it justice!!! I also used some Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and some of my hoarded Rich Razzleberry for the base. The ribbon is the Razzleberry polka dot. That’s about it really…I told you it was simple :)

Hope you are all well and happy and having a wonderful Wednesday,

The swine flu stole my Mojo

I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if everyone had stopped visiting me, I’ve been gone so long :) That swine flu is NASTY and it took ages for me to start feeling better. It wrecked my back too, with all the coughing. I’m such a sook, aren’t I? But I have made something…not that I think it’s blog worthy, but it’s all I’ve got right now ;)

When Mad was here a few weeks ago she was looking through a catalogue (not sure from where….Target maybe?) and she saw this colour combo and challenged me to use it. Tangerine Tango, Night of Navy, Kraft and Bashful Blue. I’ve used the Artfully Asian stamp set, the Eyelet border, Large Oval and Scalloped Oval punches and some Navy ribbon. The buttons are from Mama’s stash (she has some awesome buttons!).

Like I said, it’s nothing special, but it has kind of got me back into the swing of things and I hope that I can get back into it soon. I hope you are all having a wonderful Father’s day and I’ll see you soon.

Swine Flu!!!!!!

Hi there everyone :) I'm sure you've been wondering what on earth has happened to me....or maybe you didn't even notice I've been missing....LOL! When I told you last Sunday that I had a bad cold I had absolutely no idea just how sick I was going to get. I finally got to see my doctor yesterday and he thinks that I most probably have had Swine Flu! Without a test there is no way of being 100% certain, but the symptoms indicate that it is. I didn't bother with the test (even though Dr Ross offered it) because the health system is under enormous pressure with the Swine Flu problem.

I am slowly improving, but have very little energy and a very dodgy back after all the coughing! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and hope to be back to normal asap! I probably won’t be posting again this week until the MDUC card on Sunday…I still need lots of R&R before I can sit up long enough to create something.

I hope that you are all being super vigilant about hygiene and taking your vitamins :) Believe me when I tell you that you DO NOT want to get this flu…I have NEVER been so sick in my whole life! It was horrible and I hate the thought of any of you guys suffering like that. I fully understand how it can kill people…last Friday I could barely breathe and anyone with breathing problems (like asthma) is definitely in trouble if they get this flu.

OK, gotta go back to bed….see you soon!

MDUC #20!!!!

Wow! I can’t believe we’re up to TWENTY challenges! The only time I missed doing them was when I was in hospital :) I have loved every one of them…though some were more challenging than others!

Today’s MDUC challenge is no exception. It’s Father’s Day here next month, and so Kellie set this fortnight’s challenge as *Father’s Day*. I don’t give my father a card (long story) so I thought I’d make one for Abby to give to my brother, Shaun, for the day. Of course it had to be purple and for Abby’s sake it’s got some glitter and bling :)

I’ve used some of the US in-colour Rich Razzleberry (ribbon & layer) {thanks Leslie} as well as Lovely Lilac and Lavender Lace. Tilda is stamped on watercolour paper and coloured with SU markers & an aquapainter. The bling is Basic Grey & the glitter is SU Supernova. The wooden letters and heart were from a sale & don’t have the manufacturers name on the packaging. They were coloured with Copics.

I hope that both Abby & Shaun like the card…my other sister, Anna, thinks they will. OK, gotta go back to bed now…I’ve managed to catch a cold on top of the sore back and I’m feeling rather miserable. Hope it doesn’t last long! I’ll see you again soon,

More blog candy…

Tracey is giving away blog candy to celebrate 10,000 hits. This is the prize:

Having been the lucky winner of her last candy I can assure you that this prize will be awesome…though I hope I win again! Is that greedy????? LOL! You have until the 24th of August to enter…just click on Tracey’s name or the blog candy photo to go to her blog :)

Before I go I just wanted to acknowledge that I have received several blog awards recently that I need to get pictures for to post. But I wanted to make a point of saying thank you to June for her generosity in always giving me awards…and generally just being a very nice person :)

OK, better go check on the children…catch you later!

Together…

This one’s a very quick (10 minutes, seriously!) card I made yesterday to test out my new *Sense of time* set. It had been sitting here, un-mounted even, since I got it at the start of July! I loved it as soon as I saw it used (by Lydia, I think) and wanted it desperately. When I saw it was in the new Mini, it was the first set on my list! And yet I’ve waited til now to use it!!!! Anyway, I loved it, even though I only used it for a minute :) I can see sooooooooo many possibilities for this set.

I stamped the cogs onto a piece of *Porcelain* DP in Kiwi Kiss and the clock face in Close to Coco. The sentiment…well I cut it out from something and it’s been sitting in my *I really have to make something with this* basket for ages. I layered it onto a piece of Mellow Moss with inked edges  and the clock hand was inked with Close to Coco and stuck on with a jumbo Choc Chip brad.

You could use this card for an anniversary or engagement or even a wedding card…very versatile it is ;)

I also want to say thanks for all the input about the suitcase. I got Madonna to have a look at it yesterday and she showed me how to make a template and I think I will attempt it on the weekend. I will take the advice of those who obviously know better and make the first attempt with paper I don’t mind wrecking :) I hope to be able to show you the finished case, lined and all, next week :)

Right, better go fortify myself with a last cup of coffee…I am minding Mad’s older kids while her and Mark have to go to a family funeral. I am looking forward to getting to spend some extra time alone with them…and I think a photo session is probably on the cards. I do need more scrapbook material…

See you soon,

For Madonna and a question…

Yesterday I was able to sit at the craft desk and make a quick card. Nothing very spectacular, but inspired by a card I’d seen in my web travels. Unfortunately I can’t remember which blog it was…but if it seems familiar let me know…LOL!

This one’s for Madonna because she will be so proud of me….I voluntarily used Cameo Coral!!!!!!!!!!! Rather startling I know, but the use of lots of Basic Gray tones its garishness down a bit :) I’ve just cut some strips of the new Walk in the Park papers and stuck them onto the CC. I’ve used a Grey card base, ribbon and ink to stamp the sentiment from the single Birthday Wish stamp. It was stamped on So Saffron and layered with Baja Breeze to bring together all of the colours from the DSP. I finished it off with a new Kiwi Kiss corduroy button.

To be honest I didn’t really like this DSP when I saw it in the new Mini and I didn’t order it. But after seeing it in real life and in action at Madonna’s launch I am now in love with it. So in love that I decided to use it to cover a paper-mâché suitcase I picked up at Spotlight. Bit now I’ve run into a problem! I’m going to pick Madonna’s brain about what to do this afternoon, but I want to ask you all as well….you can’t have too many options :)

This is the dilemma:

This hardware is not easily removed and I’m scared that if I try I will wreck the whole thing…so I need a way around it. Any suggestions????

I’ve covered the top, bottom and back of the case in this paper:

It is sooooooo pretty. I have thought about painting but I’m just not completely sold on that idea. So please, please, please let me know what you think I should do with it. Thanks, you guys are the best :)

OK, I’m going to go make my DT card for this weekend now, while I’m feeling alright. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas about the suitcase and I’ll be back soon (I hope!).

Forest Friends

Sorry I didn’t get here yesterday…my back is being *difficult* at the moment and doing anything is a bit of a challenge. I spent most of the day in bed yesterday, but I did get into the craft room and have a tiny play with my new Forest Friends set. When I saw this set in the new Spring Mini I knew I had to have it. Those little animals are too cute and I thought it would be good for all kinds of cards. As my mojo is still MIA this card is pretty simple…but the gorgeous Porcelain paper & stunning rose trim makes up for that….I hope :)

Yes, I’ve just realised that the trim is sagging when I stand it up like that…so I’ll pop a little glue dot under it before I give it away.

And here’s the card from Sunday’s MDUC. It too is very simple. There’s one thing to point out though…the blue and silver paper was the belly band on the beautifully wrapped book that Lauren sent me for my birthday. I loved it so much I couldn’t bear to throw it away and wanted to use it on a card. As the theme is *Winter is here* I thought the blue & silver looked *icy*…LOL!

OK, that’s enough of sitting in this chair for today. I hope I am feeling up to making something later on today…after a little rest :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Home again…

I am home from my mini-break at Madonna’s place…tired and slightly sore, but I had the best time hanging out with my awesome sister and her amazing family. There were lots of hugs and kisses, some reading and, of course, some crafty activities :) Madonna had a launch for the new Spring Mini Catalogue on Saturday and she designed 3 awesome projects for her guests. It was fantastic to see her in action as a demo and to see the girls having so much fun making the cards and the tin that Mad had devised. I participated in the card making and here are the two cards that I made…

(Please excuse my bad photography…it’s very difficult to take a pic of acetate!)

Aren’t these great? No, not my work…the design…LOL! I really enjoyed myself making these…I didn’t have to think about it, just follow the directions :)

We also started making magnetic message boards from cookie sheets…mine’s not completely finished yet, but as soon as it is I’ll share it with you.

I also have to apologise for the lack of a MDUC post on Sunday….I scheduled it, but it has somehow disappeared into the ether and I don’t know how or why. I will re-do it and post it for you tomorrow. If you can’t wait you can click on the MDUC button in the side bar and go check it out over there, along with all the other gorgeous creations by the DT. I have to admit that it’s not my best work and I’ll will be working extra hard on the next one to make up for it ;)

OK, gotta go catch up on my emails and Google reader stuff. I’ll see you tomorrow :)

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,