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,

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 ♥

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 :)

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 :)

Moving to the country…

Yep, that is this weeks challenge at Magnolia Down Under Challenges. However, if you go over there to check out the DT’s cards you won’t see mine. Why???, you ask…well, because I hadn’t even taken a photo of it, much less sent that to Kellie to post on the blog. I have been a little unwell the past few days, but that’s no excuse for just plain forgetfulness!!!! I really need to get myself a little better organised and out of this holiday mindset! Anyway, I have now taken a picture and sent it to Kellie and I can show it to you here at least.

Just a brief forward on this card…I first saw this theme on the list of challenges many weeks ago, even before I moved and it had me thinking about how I was moving to the country myself. I only made this card earlier in the week and I don’t really have any *country* type Tildas (though I have a suitcase stamp coming that would have been perfect for this one), so I improvised. The sentiment is my hope for myself with this move to the country :)

I’ve used Sitting Tilda (coloured with Copics), *As Lovely As A Tree* from SU! and the sentiment comes from the hostess set *Best Yet*. My fence is a bit dodgy…I hope you can tell that’s what it’s meant to be! The big flower is from the Pretties kit and coloured with a Not Quite Navy marker and the little felt flower is from Flower Fusion Too in Pink Pirouette. The CS is Not Quite Navy, Kraft and Chocolate Chip. The string is some I had out for something else and it occurred to me that it would look cute :)

OK, that about wraps it up. As usual if you have an questions let me know. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend,

Under the Sea

Just a quick post tonight for the Magnolia Down Under Challenge card…it’s suddenly much later than I’d realized! I went bold, bright and glittery for my take on the theme:

I’ve used the Mermaid Tilda along with a Pink Passion crab from Fishy Friends and a large seashell in VersaMark from Seaside. The colours are Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Orchid Opulence and Tempting Turquoise. The glitter is the new Supernova glitter in blue and pink :) {Yes, it is everywhere all over the house}.

Gotta run and get dinner started…chat to you soon,

Magnolia Down Under Challenge #11

This week’s MDUC was set by the lovely Debbie and the theme is *Thinking of You*. Make sure you go check out the DT cards this week…there are some really awesome designs :)

This was the last of the cards I made before I left Sydney, while I was trying to get ahead just in case :) It was a hard one, only because there are so many options for this theme….anyway, this is what I came up with:

I love this citrus-y combination of So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss and Tangerine Tango. The wide striped Saffron grosgrain from one of the ribbon originals packs went perfectly with this one. I also used some of the brand new flower brads from SU! These little brads are actually really heavy and I think you’d need extra postage on this card. The Magnolia image was one of the RAK’s that I received from Kristy.

My Mama is such a bad influence on me…this morning before she went to work I was showing her some of the new Magnolias that are available and before I knew it I had ordered a bunch of new stamps! Some of them are pre-order though and I won’t get them til next month. I also bought a bunch of accessories for the girls…chairs and suitcases…lots of cute things for the sitting ones to perch on!

For all the mothers out there….I hope you have a lovely Mother’s Day and get very, very spoilt :) I made my Mama a lovely card which I will show you tomorrow and bought her some nice Kaiser storage things for her new craft room makeover, which starts later this week. I have been making lots of cards in advance, as the craft room is sure to be completely disorganised for a few days! I can’t wait for the end result though…Mama is going to have the loveliest room and it will be hard getting her out of there! I’m going to set up a blog for her too…I don’t know if she will be posting on there herself or if she’ll make me do it…LOL! But at least she’ll have somewhere to show off all her lovely creations. I’ll give you a link as soon as it’s finished.

I hope you’ll all go over to the MDUC blog and play along with this week’s challenge :)

Girly Birthday Card

You’re all probably really sick and tired of seeing Tildas this week…but I’ve been having so much fun colouring in the images that the lovely Kellie stamped for me that I just can’t help myself. I put in a Stampin’ Up! order today with a few new stamp sets in it, so next week I’ll have something different to show you :)

This one was coloured with markers and ink (again) and made into a pretty, girly birthday card…with a matching envelope as well:

The colour combo is Rose Red, Regal Rose and Basic Gray & the striped paper is from the hostess 6x6 paper pack. There are some gorgeous papers in that pack and I think I’ll probably end up using them all!!! The stamp set is Happy Everything, the brads are Rose Red and the ribbon is the wide Regal Rose grosgrain. The rest is pretty obvious I’d say :)

Just a heads up too….Leslie at The Crooked Stamper is giving away some blog candy! All you need to do to enter is make a card using ribbon and a button (green gets you bonus points) and link it up to her blog. Go on over and check it out :) I was lucky enough to win some blog candy from Kirsty this week…can’t wait for it to arrive at my house so I can play with all the lovely goodies! Thanks Kirsty!!!!

Thanks for all the well wishes about the bank…they will give me a loan, but it’s not much…LOL. I’m still not convinced that I really want to take on that kind of responsibility…if anything goes wrong (like the hot water heater blows up) it’s all up to me and that kinda freaks me out a bit. So I’m going to think about it a bit more before I decide. Maybe I’m just not *grown up* enough to deal with that much responsibility ;)

Hope you’re all having a wonderful Wednesday,

I love buttons…

The Stampin’ Up! in-colour Button Bouquet buttons to be precise! I have had them for about 2 or 3 weeks now and I’ve almost used them all. I just love having buttons that go with the in-colours and although I was disappointed that SU! retired the other buttons, I’m loving with these ones. I’ll have to get the Latte ones now too and have a play with them.

So, why am I talking about buttons??? Well, yesterday’s card had buttons (though the old retired ones) and today’s offering also has them…the new in-colour ones. Want to see it?

This is another one of the Magnolias that Kellie stamped for me. I tell you, having all these cute images is making it very hard for me to refrain from buying a whole lot of stamps!!! I figure I’ll just have to get Kellie to stamp me some more….LOL! I do provide the paper and this time I might have to send something tasty to keep her going while she stamps them :)

I coloured this Tilda with a combination of markers and the ink from the lids of the inkpads and the trusty aquapainter. I like the softness of the watercolouring with the Tildas…it suits them I think. I’ve also used Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Basic Gray CS and the Basic Gray polka dot DSP from the hostess pack (did I tell you how much I love these papers?). The ribbon is Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain and the buttons are, of course, the Button Bouquet ones. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet and is stamped in Riding Hood Red on Baja Breeze and punched with the small oval. I then mounted it onto a large oval of Basic Gray and a Designer Label of Riding Hood Red.

I really like the way these colours look together and think that I could even make this work for a masculine card…that might have to be a challenge for myself :) OK, better go get ready….I’m going to the bank this afternoon to see if they’ll give me a home loan so I can buy a house. To tell the truth I’m a teeny bit terrified by the idea of owning a house…but we’ll see how it goes. After all, they might say NO WAY!!! LOL.

Spot the Dots

So this is another of the posts that I have scheduled, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all goes to plan and the post at the right time!

This week’s Magnolia Down Under challenge is *Spot the Dots* and you can see from my card that I took this rather literally!

Now, this is one of those times when I wished that I had written down the ingredients for my card somewhere. Usually I just go check the name of things in my stash…but of course as I’m writing this it’s all packed up and not accessible!!! The Magnolia stamp is Sitting Tilda and I chose her because she has a polka dot top and hair bow…she was stamped on Neenah Solar Crest and coloured with Copics. The DSP is the now retired Dashing…I’m really going to have to get some new DSP and stop using all the retired stuff…but these jumbo polka dots were perfect. The little polka dots that she is sitting on and that are in the scallop circle are from the same pack. The stamp is one of last year’s hostess sets and for the life of me I can’t remember the name…it’s the one with all the stamps for the round tab punch. The ribbon was a piece that came with an order from one of my favourite on-line scrapping shops so I don’t know the manufacturer. The CS is Real Red and Old Olive.

I hope you all find time to play along in this week’s challenge…I had heaps of fun trying to find as many polka dotted things as possible to put on this card :)

Have a great Sunday,

While I’m flying away :)

I find it rather amusing to be sitting here typing this, knowing that when it (hopefully) publishes on Friday I will be on my way to Queensland!!!! I have also set my Magnolia challenge card to post on Sunday and I’m crossing my fingers that it all works the way it should. I will be back to *normal* by Monday, so you won’t even have a chance to miss me!

This is a card I did the other day for the SCS colour challenge but of course I have packed up the piece of paper that says which one it is and don’t have time to go track it down right now…if you really want to know you can find it in the list of colour challenges :)

So the challenge was to use Bordering Blue, Pink Pirouette and So Saffron, with Choc Chip as an optional colour. Obviously I chose to use Choc Chip as I thought it went well with the others. I used the cute Tilda with Tulips for this one and coloured her with Copics. I mounted her on dimensionals onto PP and the CC. The Saffron CS was stamped with the large flower from Cheap Talk in Saffron ink and then the smaller one in Choc Chip…clearly I did NOT use my stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up properly, but I’m going with the idea that the slight offset of the Choc flowers gives the background and extra charm…LOL. I also used one of the sentiments from that set and stamped it in Choc Chip ink. I used some Saffron embroidered ribbon from the retired Ribbon Originals and a couple of Primas with a rhinestone brad in the centre. Oh yeah, and I used the eyelet border punch on the Saffron panel.

Hope you are all having a fabulous Friday…I know mine will be because I get to see my darling nieces and nephew as well as Madonna and her lovely husband Mark. It’s going to be a great day for sure :)

Bling it on!

Yay for me...I'm out of hospital and home at last!!!! I got home last night and I don't think I've ever been so glad to sleep in my own bed! Not to mention the huge plus of NOT being woken at 6am to take pills :) Hospital pretty much sucks and ten days is about 9 days too many!!!

I'm seriously looking forward to catching up on what you've all been up to, but with over a thousand items in my Google reader it might take a while to get there! I do want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes...I appreciated each and every one of them. Also a big thanks to the lovely Kay for the gorgeous get well card that was waiting for me when I got home last night...you made my day!

After settling in and catching up on my sleep, I found some time to enter the latest Magnolia Down Under Challenge. Unfortunately I missed the last one and therefore miss out on the chance to win the cool prize from Bizzy Bec's :( But I was determined to do this challenge, which was thought up by my lovely friend (Princess) Kristy....Bling it on! The name says it all really and after almost two weeks of being deprived of my craft supplies I think I went a little overboard with the bling....LOL!!!
There's three different kinds of glitter, as well as sparkly blue rhinestone brads. I wanted to use some glittery DP too, but should have found that first to match the colours I used for my Tilda :) Anyway, I've made a departure from my favoured pinks and purples this week to go with various shades of blue, green, and blue/green. The card base is Taken with Teal; the ribbon, DSP and CS under all that blue glitter is Tempting Turquoise; the flowers are from Prima; the stamps are Magnolia; and I've used about 20 different Copic markers to colour with!

For those of you who are wondering about the payback for Mad's posting of that hideously embarrassing photo....well, I'm working on something truly devastating....I can promise that she will be very, very sorry for that misdemeanor indeed!!!!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend....I know that I will now that I'm free and able to eat pizza!!!!!

Kristie

Inky Impressions 1st Design Team Call

I'm pretty excited (and just a bit nervous!) to submit my entry for the Inky Impressions 1st Design Team call. Nicole's images are so adorable, I'd love to be able to play with them on a regular basis...so keep your fingers crossed for me???

We're supposed to submit 2 of our best creations that showcase our colouring skills, as well as colour matching, originality and creativity. However, I made about 6 different things and couldn't narrow it down to two....so I hope Nicole will forgive me for submitting 3 things :)

The first one is a gift box that I made with a matching tag featuring Tilda with Lilacs:


This next one is a Sarah Kay image...Picnic with Daisies. Both the Tilda above and this Sarah Kay image were coloured with Copic markers. The background on the Sarah Kay one was done with chalks. Oh, and there's a cute matching envelope. I used the same polka dot paper on both these projects, basically because I'm totally in love with it at the moment!
The final card is something a bit different. Both the swing and the Tilda were images stamped and sent to me by my lovely friend Kristy. I coloured them with watercolour pencils and a blender pen, before cutting them out and popping them up on the background. The background started as a piece of white CS on which I stamped the line of trees from SU's Lovely as a Tree. The trees were coloured and *thumped* with markers to give the variety of colour. I then coloured the sky and grass with chalks. I punched some little flowers from different DSP and drew in some stems and grass with a watercolour pencil.

This view shows how Tilda and the swing are popped up. It's very dimensional and cool looking IRL :)

So that's it. I hope Nicole likes them! It's rather nerve wracking to put your work out there to be judged in that way...but whatever happens I'm glad I decided to try...if you don't try then you'll never succeed, right?

I hope you're all having a great weekend and that you come back and see me tomorrow...I have an awesome *Happy Mail* card to share with you :)

Kristie

Down Under Magnolia Challenge #2

Anyone who's been reading my blog for any length of time will know that I love my ribbon. I pretty much think that a card looks unfinished if it doesn't have any ribbon on it :) But when I saw what Kellie had come up with for the 2nd Magnolia Down Under Challenge I have to admit that I was stumped. How on earth was I going to get FIVE different ribbons on one card?????

The *Getting Tangled Up in Ribbons* challenge was to get at least 5, more if possible, ribbons onto your card. Now I don't now about you guys, but I was pretty hard pressed to get 5 on there, let alone any more! Anyway, I had to think about it for a few days before it finally occurred to me that the Ribbon Originals packs have 5 different co-ordinating ribbons and I could use that to my advantage...so, here it is:
I used the Beachfront Ribbons as they're all neutral and don't clash with one another...and they look really nice with my favourite purples! I also took a break from my Copic markers this time...not 'cause I don't love them anymore, but I thought that a lot of people don't have them (they are a tad expensive) and I wanted to show you that the gorgeous Magnolia stamps look awesome coloured in other mediums. For this card I stamped Tilda with Lilacs onto some SU! watercolour paper in Stazon and coloured her with ink from the lids of my ink pads (and a couple of markers for the small, tricky bits). She's coloured mostly with Soft Subtles...but her shoes are partly Basic Gray, the flowers, hair bow, and knee patch are the gorgeous retired Vintage Violet, the leaves and stems are True Thyme, and the sky is Cool Caribbean.

I mounted the water coloured piece onto some Basic Gray and then onto Vintage Violet. I attached four of the ribbons to this panel and then stamped the sentiment from the retiring Hostess set, For a Friend, in Vintage Violet onto some Perfect Plum. That had the white rick-rac attached and then it was mounted onto some Pale Plum and stuck over the ribbons with Dimensionals. The card base is Very Vanilla.

For some reason it all looks a bit crooked in this photo, but IRL it's not :) I can't take any more photos tonight as it's raining now and the light is shocking. I might have time to take a better picture tomorrow :)

OK, that's it for this one...but I challenge you to try and make a card with 5 ribbons on it...go on, I dare you :) Make it a Magnolia card and you can enter the Challenge too! Heck, I might even give it another try if I can figure out something different to do...LOL.

Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday,
Kristie

Double Trouble

Today I've got two Tilda ATCs to show you. I made these for the Tilda and Friends ATC Challenges blog. The name of the challenge was Double Trouble and you were to use 2 of everything on your ATC.

The first one is, suitably enough, the first one I made the other night, using one of the images that Kristy had sent me. I wasn't entirely happy with the way it turned out, but it's ok :)
I've used 2 ribbons (SU!), 2 patterned papers (MME) 2 doubled flowers (Prima) and 2 rhinestone brads(SU!)...I didn't have 2 stamps to use. The DP that I used is super sparkly...but it's hard to capture that in a photo!

For my second attempt I used one of my brand new Tilda stamps that came yesterday, called Tilda with Lilacs. I stamped her onto Neenah Solar Crest and coloured her with my Copics. These are the most fun to colour for sure :)
This one has two different coloured cardstock, 2 ribbons and 2 buttons (all SU!). It's alot less busy than the first one and I think that it would look cute made into a full size card...but we'll see :)

OK, I'm off to do some more colouring in...I've still got 2 uninked stamps to be playing with ;)
Kristie

A new obsession....

My lovely friend Kristy recently became a DT member for a brand new challenge blog called Magnolia Down Under Challenges. I've long been a fan of Magnolia stamps, but until now I haven't gotten any...but they're on their way :) Kristy was kind enough to send me a few stamped images, so that I could play until my stamps get here and one of them was this gorgeous Sitting Tilda (yes, she's one of those that I ordered!).
So, the Down Under challenge for this week had a few limitations....it had to have red, it had to use Tilda (not Edwin) and it had to have an Autumn theme. This is the card that I came up with:

Supplies:
Paper: More Mustard, Really Rust, Elegant Eggplant & Very Vanilla
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Really Rust, Old Olive
Markers: Ruby Red, More Mustard, So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Not Quite Navy & E00 Copic Marker
Stamps: Sitting Tilda (Magnolia), Simple Delights (SU!) & Leaf Stamps (Birch)
Other: More Mustard ribbon & Brads, Really Rust buttons, hemp twine, Large Oval punch, Designer Label punch

I had a lot of fun colouring this Tilda image and I can't wait to get my own stamps! I'll be playing along with these challenges every week...'cause they're just so much fun :)

If you've got some Tilda stamps & want to play along, you have until Saturday to get your entry in!

Hope you're all having a fantastic Wednesday,
Kristie