The challenge is on.............

Hi all,

I have been challenged to a card off. Well I think that is what you would call it lol. I sent some stamped images to a very nice young lady by the name of Hannah who has a blog here & her flickr photostream is here. So we have decided to do a challenge with some of the stamped images that I sent her. The stamps we are using are the Hero Arts Russian Dolls CL289 We even have a judge the lovely Linda Yay!

Miss Hannah has even done her very first sketch:

Pretty neat huh. I don't think I could do a sketch like this to save my self. We have two weeks to do this in. So enough with the chit chat I'm off to create. TTFN

Tom & Smudge

Tom & Smudge
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Well as you can see I am the proud servant of these two furballs lol. The ginger/white one is Tom & the black/white one is Smudge but we tend to call her Bludger. Both of these two fine examples of feline purrrrrfection are recycled pets. Tom is a stray who has been with me for the last 7 years & Smudge is a pound kitty, who I have had for the last 4 years. So you could say they have both led blessed lives to some extent.

I had a scare with Tom in the last 4 days. I discovered that his right eye is white. I can only describe it as milky. So then of course I wanted to take him to the vet & my dh decided in all of his wisdom (Yes I am being sarcastic) that it was only old age. So I did the only thing I could. I made an appointment for a time that I knew my dh would be asleep & took Tom to the vet. Sneaky I know but I wasn't about to have an arguement before going to the vet. I have had enough of my dh's attitude towards vets in general. Plus it's not like I take the cats there all the time. So now I have a three legged blind in one eye cat. Maybe I should start calling him Lucky. Apparently my big ol' Tom has had blunt force truma to his right eye & will never be able to see out of that eye ever again. Which is a relief for me as I was thinking the worse & thought that maybe I would have to have him put down. I know that sounds horrible saying I'm glad that he is only blind in one eye, but all considering that is not life threatening.

So because I scared myself over Tom I thought I would take a few photos of him. But Bludger had other ideas & kept getting in the way trying to be a camera hog or helpful (take your pick). I ended up "sitting" (by that I had her pinned with my legs) on her while I took some decent photos of Tom. The last photo of Smudge was taken while I was sitting on her lol. Doesn't that look say it all............I am soooooooo going to suffer for this outrage. I am sure she is planning something big for me. Oh well such is the life of a cat's maid.

I am hoping to post some more cards later so till then have a great weekend. TTFN

Owl on a Cherry Blossom

Hi all,

I couldn't help myself, *sigh* I tried (really I did) to make another card exactly the same as my Love you Mum card. I got as far as cutting out the owl, circle, branch, cherry blossom & dragon fly & that's when it went pear shape. For a start I had used up all those little silver circle ring things. Then my lantern stickers had mysteriously disappeared (I'm blaming the cats!). I don't need either of those I tell myself. Then I spotted the background paper already on a blank card base, & that as they say "is all she wrote". I really enjoyed making the last Mojo Monday card so decided to do another one instead. I think this has turned out well despite all of my good intentions. I so have a hard time making the same thing twice & if by some miracle I do actually make two cards the same, you can bet that there will be a small difference between them. So enjoy & I hope that every one has a great week ahead. TTFN

Mojo Monday challenge - week 82

Mojo Monday challenge - week 82
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi all

This is my card for the Mojo Monday challenge. I love these papers & have been hoarding them for ages. I finally got up the courage to cut into them, tonight. I love the way these colours work so well together. Although the green strip & square show up a lot darker on this photo. Then the light green square shows up as yellow oh well I guess nothing beats natural lighting. I raised the owl up on pop dots as well as the butterfly. The owl came from the lovely Lucy :). We exchanged stamped images awhile ago & I have had so much fun colouring them in. Thanks for stoping by TTFN.

Love you Mum

Love you Mum
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi all,

This is my latest creation, it has taken the better part of half a day to make. Only because I had to wait for the Diamond Glaze & Kindy Glitz to dry. This is one of my favourites as of now. I don't know if I can bare to part with this one. I love it that much. Maybe I will leave it out & my dh will write in it for mother's day on behalf of our daughter. After I have told him to of course :).

My very good friend Helen & I went shopping the other day at our most favourite LSS (where I got the papers for Zac's card). We discovered these lantern stickers & decided to go halves in them. Then of course we had to challenge each other to come up with a card using the stickers. The other great thing about this card is except for the large Doll I have used all of Helen's stamps. We get together & stamp up a heap of stamps from each other. I am slowly getting through them all. So many stamps so little time :(.

Just a little info on the card, the large doll has 4 layers (each one raised up). The small doll uses 3 layers. I used Diamond Glaze on the doll's hair just to give it that extra bit of razzle dazzle ( I got the idea from one of the talented ladies on the Hero Arts flickr group). The background & branch for the owl are from the one stamped image. The flowers owl & his branch are all raised up as well. I used inks on the large flowers & Prisma color pencils on everything else.

Have a great weekend every one TTFN

I'm a Wednesday Wonder.

Hi all,

Well the title says it all. Yes I am this week's Wednesday Wonder over on Society of Stamp & Scrapaholics By the one & only wonderful Deborah Nolan. If you have never seen Deborah's blog I am here to tell you that I have been a huge fan of not only Deborah's blog but her cards as well. You can view more of her wonderful cards & things here. So please if you need a cheery spot in your day or just like an interesting read go & check it out.

I will be back later to show off some more of my creations. I just have to finish up a project. I am also thinking of uploading a step by step (with photos) tutorial on how to make that froggie card I did recently. I am trying to work out how to go about it at the moment. TTFN

CPS Challenge 111

Princely Owl.
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi all,

I decided that this is the card for my nephew Zac :). I think it's more "9 yr old manly" if you know what I mean. The last one was a bit iffy for a boy.

I have entered this card for the CPS challenge & the Hero Arts "My Message" challenge. I love the way the top of the card turned out. Especially that cute owl. I just had to give him a crown, as he looked so regal. I decided to cut the trees out & give them a little lift. I raised the tops of them up on foam tape. I then embossed the message in Seafoam white embossing powder. I used a gel pen to add the dots. This time around I left "friend" off the message so I can put nephew on the inside. TFL & TTFN

Card Patterns Challenge.

Ok firstly I thought I'd try out my Picassa 3 editing software since it's been on the computer for ages & I never use it. So I hope that you can see the above picture.

This card is for the latest Card Patterns Challenge I am really enjoying the freedom of doing sketches lately. As they stop me from going ummm......err ok.......lets see.......... etc, etc & not really getting anywhere with my cards. This way half the work is done for me ;-P.

So now you are wondering what papers did I use? Well let me tell you this cute range just happens to belong to www.mylittleshoebox.com I just love the owls, birds, turtles, trees & houses on these papers. The best thing is they are all double sided so I get twice the fun from them. No wonder they accidently fell into my shopping basket the other day while at my LSS. I am also using one of my new stamps on this card as well. Happy Birthday is from my new Hero Arts Clear set CL272 All Occasion Messages. I cut the Happy Birthday apart from the rest of the saying as it was just the perfect font & size for this card. I am thinking of giving this card to my nephew for his 9th b'day. I think it's ok for a boy, now before you say "Hey didn't you already make him one" this is another nephew Zac whose b'day is the day after Sonny's. No wonder I get confused some days!. Well I am off to make a few more now whilst the creative juices are flowing, so TTFN.

PS Dawn I finally found a linky thing in blogger that I can use, thanks so much for your help :-D.

BirdHouse

Hi all,

Well this isn't birthday cards, I got a little side tracked (very normal). I am really enjoying this week's Hero Arts challenge :). Especially when I saw these cute little houses at my LSS. I knew they would be just perfect for the Beyond Paper challenge. I think the hardest part on the birdhouse was waiting for the paint & ink to dry. I had every intention of stamping the roof as well, but ran into a slight problem. Being made the way they are the roof is uneven & of course that meant the stamping was well lets just say "YUCKY"! So I decided to cover it with BG paper (this is from the Porcelain range). I think doing the roof this way gives it a country feel, which for me is a good thing. My next project is to do the other one. Not sure on how to do the roof of that one yet. I don't have a lot of that paper left & because there is 4 sides (instead of two) not sure how the "seams" will look. I'll just have to think on it, something will come to me eventually.

Well tomorrow is the big day - Easter bunny will be a visitin' every one so from our household to yours "Hoppy Easter every Bunny!" Hope you get lots of Chocky's & have a safe & happy time. TTFN

The Bunny's Basket & a Butterfly

HI all,

Well I have finally got my Hero Art's Heatwing Butterfly F5158. I have been waiting patiently for this since the last lot of stamps came in. I love this stamp, you will see what I mean if you go the Hero Arts Flickr pool. There are some amazingly talented women who do unimaginable things with this stamp. I'm only hoping that I can do this stamp justice.

As you can see I have made Em an Easter Basket. I spotted this while I was waiting for the rain to stop (another day of rain ugghhh) after I had brought a heap of stuff at my LSS. Isn't that always the way :-). They come "flat packed" & white so I have decorated it with Imaginisce "For Peep's Sake/Pretty New Dress" papers. I have been hoarding these papers for awhile now. Originally I was going to cover some wooden letters with them, but since then I have done something else with the letters which I will blog later. I think this basket is so cute. But I'm not sure about all that space. I have a clutter issue I'm sure. I wanted this basket to last a few easters, so didn't want to make it too babish. I can't wait to see what Em thinks of this now it's complete. I want this to be the "Magical Easter Basket" from the Easter Bunny. Sort of a tradition for her. Well I'm off to go & make some b'day cards as I'm getting a little low on them. TTFN

Card Pattern Challenge

Card Pattern Challenge
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi there (again),

I know two blog posts in the one day. But hey what can I say? I actually had this card & the other card half done this morning. I had every thing layed out in preperation to be glued down tonight. The beauty of card sketches. Makes for a fast card (mostly). Plus I had already had this stamped image from another project that I eventually gave up on. Two other people had simular style of stamping on a Hero Arts challenge so I thought three would have been a crowd :-P. Any way TFL & TTFN

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter.
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi this is just a quick post, I'm about to walk out the door (got some casual work). This card is for the CPS challenge. I'm also giving this card to a dear friend who got me the job I'm about to do :). I used Sandelion stamp (bunny) & Hero Arts stamps. TFL & TTFN

Mojo Challenge

Mojo Challenge
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi all,

This is my challenge for the Mojo Monday challenge. I am really enjoying doing the sketch challenges lately. It is giving me somewhere to start. I may not enter all my creations but at least I am not sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for that next idea to come along. This card is for my dh's nephew Sonny who will be 9 in a few weeks. I think it's boyish enough without being too cutesy. I used Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder on both the crown & the S. So they look really nice. I also used Hero Arts clear set stamps cl271 Shadow & elements (my HM prize) & cl305 Sending happy thoughts. TTFN

Card from Lucy.

Card from Lucy.
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share a card from a great friend of mine. Lucy made this card for me a few weeks ago. Isn't it wonderful?

We exchanged some stamped images which was fun. I think the hardest part was the waiting for the parcels to arrive. Lucy also gave me a stamp that she didn't use that much (another lovely surprise), so a huge thank you for that Lucy.

If you get a chance you have to go over to Lucy's blog (in my side bar) & check out her wonderful cards. Especially now that she has made the Design Team for Caardvark. Woohoo to you Lucy.

My very first award :-D. (thanks Dawn).

This is it, my very first award. How cool is that! Thank you Dawn you rock!

To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award:
Comment on this blog.

Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.

Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.

Link to your nominees within your blog post.

Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

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So Ok I'm hoping that I have done this linking thing right :-) Please be patient with me if I haven't. All of these people can be found in my side bar any way. So here goes nothin' :
1. Lucy over at http://hedgehogsandladybirds.blogspot.com/
2. Deberah over at http://dominodebi.typepad.com/sos/
3. Fika over at http://juicyflavor.blogspot.com/
4. Julie over at http://theycallmethescrapnut.blogspot.com/
5. Krysten over at http://sugar-buffet.blogspot.com/
6. Lysa over at http://lysaq.blogspot.com/
7. Jenn over at http://createdbyjb.typepad.com/created_by_jb/
8. Laura over at http://stampart.blogspot.com/
9. Diana over at http://designsbydiana.typepad.com/my_weblog/

In the end I gave up trying to link to your names so did the old copy & paste thing. I think my computer is causing the non linking thing. Oh well maybe one day it will get it's act together. Any way go check these lovely ladies out :-D. You will be glad that you did. TTFN (ta ta for now).

Thank you Hero Arts :)

I am so, so, so very happy (even did a happy dance) at the moment. I won an Honerable Mention on the Hero Arts blog a few weeks ago (for my 3D Frogs). So yesterday I recieved a parcel from them. A set of brand new stamps!!!! They are so gorgeous, I can't wait to use them on a card. I am even considering making another One Layer card for this week's challenge with them. They are CL271 Shadow & Elements, if you want to check them out on the Hero Arts site. I am definately going to be using this set a lot. If I knew how I'd link them so that you could just click on the words & be magically transported to them at the Hero Arts site. Oh to be techno wise........Well enough dribble I'm off to go & play with my "precious" (said just like Gollum) now.

Em's quilt

Em's quilt
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Well as you know the title of my blog states that I have a fabric addiction as well as a paper addiction. So I thought I had better show you one of my other hobbies. This is a quilt that I am in the middle of making for my dd. I am not working to any patterns so it's kind of a mish mash of ideas. I think it all started from the fact that I wanted to try out my bias maker. Plus I brought a heap of fabrics from Spotlight to make a fun quilt for Em. The centre panel is from my stash, & the rest are the Spotlight fabrics. Since this photo was taken I have added another section to the bottom (I discovered Em has a King single bed). All I need to do now is finish the buttonhole stitching on the butterflies & put another boarder around the outside, get it quilted & bound & maybe have this all done by August for Em's 3rd b'day. Wish me luck........it's only taken 12 months to get to this stage lol.

Ggggrrrrr Card

Ggggrrrrr Card
Originally uploaded by pajalu (Paula)

Well the name says it all doesn't it! I think I had my wobbly eyes in whilst making this card. It's crooked & then a mystery smudge has turned up. I have made this card for the Hero Arts "One Layer" challenge & for the Mojomonday.blogspot.com sketch challenge.
Not sure if it is worthy of both challenges, but what the hey. TFL.