Labels and Spritzers.

Hi Lovelies,

Yes I'm still on the organizer train.  Today I want to share with you my latest "toy".  I brought this Distress ink Spritzer when I went to CraftOnline.com.au the other week.  I saw it & then had to You-tube it.  I was so delighted to see that it can be used with Copics (my favourite markers).  I also was a happy camper to discover that I could use a water brush with it.  Which meant I didn't have to buy any of the Distress Markers (although you probably saw Picket Fence in one of my last posts pictures).  I made these cute tags with Distress inks I already own.  All I did was "stamp" the ink pad onto an acrylic block added some water, and mixed a little perfect pearls (into Peacock Feathers) and spritzed away.  I really enjoyed making these simple tags.  The inks I used where Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire and Mowed Lawn.  I then used my black Copic to write on the tags, after they dried.  It was a great way to use up scraps of Bazzil c/stock.  I used my Cuttlebug & Spellbinders Nestibilities small ovals as well.

I was lucky enough to find this pretty ribbon in my ribbon jar that is close in colour to Mowed Lawn. I am planning on making more tags as I have so much of this ribbon & more baskets that need sorting and labeling.  I know there is a saying that "Blue and Green should never be seen", but these are my favourite colours and I figure Doug wouldn't care.

Have a great day & happy crafting.

Card organizer - Graphic 45's Time to Flourish

Hi Lovelies,

Last week I went to CraftOnline.com.au to get the rest of these Time to Flourish Graphic 45 papers that my favourite scrap booking store Daisy Chain didn't stock.  I originally brought February, June & August from Daisy Chain, as they are the girls birthday & I know heaps of people that are having birthdays in February (like Arlene).  I then went back for March, April, May & December.  Barbi doesn't stock the whole range of these papers as here in Australia Halloween isn't a big deal (although it's gaining popularity), plus the seasons are all back to front.  January is one of the hottest months so Let it snow sentiments don't really work that well.  But I couldn't resist getting all the papers.  I just love the colours and the imagery is amazing.  I saw this video on You-tube (it's fast becoming my go-to place of late) and knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do.  But I will admit I wanted my organizer to be sturdier.  So I used French Vanilla Bazzil as my pages & then decorated them before using my Zutter to bind it.  In all of the pockets are the "leftovers" that I haven't used to decorate the pages with.  If you look at June (it's one of my favourite pages) below you can see what the page looks like when the pocket is empty & the Month card front.  On the back of these cards I'm going to have a perpetual month.  So it can be used time & time again,  The only thing I would do differently is use bigger rings.  I used the 3/4 binding rings & the book doesn't sit flat, it lifts up at the open side.  

I'm not sure where this gorgeous book will end up.  I'm planning on using the leftovers & the other pages from the pad (yes I caved & brought the pad lol) to make cards to put into the pockets.  I will ever turn it into a teacher gift or maybe give it to Doug's mother for her birthday or Mothers' Day.

Either way I'm sure it will have a great home.

Have a wonderful day & happy crafting.

Some more Organizing hacks

Hi Lovelies,

Today I want to share with you how I store my Distress Ink Daubers.  It's nothing fancy but it works for me.

If you look closely at the last photo in the bottom right corner you can see my "Before" shot.  I've been using a Cotton reel rack (not sure of the correct name) to store my daubers for awhile now.  It worked well but because the daubers had a bigger hole (where your finger goes) they tended to wobble around on the prongs.  Which meant quite often I'd have to turn them all around to find the colour that I wanted.  Because I'm anal and label everything I found this time consuming & really annoying.  So today I came up with a "quick fix" which is cheap.  I went to my bathroom, grabbed these make-up pad removers, (These last me years as I very rarely wear make-up), some sticky tape & scissors.  I cut each pad into four, then I stuck them down with the tape (wrapping the tape around the prongs).  I think this took me about ten minutes to complete.  End result is the daubers sit better on the prongs & I can now see what the colours are.

Do you have any cheap & easy storage ideas?  I'd love to hear/see them.  I'm trying really hard to use up my stash of crafting supplies.  I want to empty out my craft room & start again.  I know this sounds silly, because I've only had my craft room set up for two months, but I had an area about four times the size I have now.  So I really need to get organised & sort out what I really need from the "Why the heck did I buy this?"  Lately I seem to be doing a bit each day of the re-organizing & luckily for me I can donate a lot of my excess/don't wants to the school.  As they can always use it.

Have a great day & happy crafting

Thursday Share

Hi Lovelies,

Today is just a quick share day.  I made these cards over a week ago & have only just gotten around to sharing.  I used leftovers from three sheets of 12" x 12" of p/paper.  If I was organised I'd remember to write down what brands they where.  I haven't stamped on either of them & the sentiment from the second one is a die cut, to which I then added Star Dust Stickles.  I also added Star Dust Stickles to the white leaves of the flower card.  I found some green pearls and coloured the centre of a Kaisercraft paper flower the same as the flowers on the paper. These cards probably took a whole five minutes to put together.  I decided not to add a sentiment to the first one as I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted the card to say.

Have a great day & happy crafting.

Captain Rogers, yes please!

Hi Lovelies,

 Today is my birthday - Happy Birthday to Me ;p.  So guess what I got.  Yup a plumber, no you didn't guess that?  Oh okay.  Yeah I wanted a plumber for my birthday & no not a stripping kind of one either (dirty minded much?).  Since we have been in our dream home the toilets haven't been user friendly.  The one in our en-suite takes up to eight hours for the cistern to fill again.  So I have a bucket that I fill from the shower to flush this loo.  The other toilet has button issues.  They are really hard to push (even for me and according to Doug I know how to push buttons).  So the girls have no chance of flushing.  Doug complained that he didn't know how to gift wrap a plumber.  Silly man.  But at least he came good & rang one, so now I have a plumber on order.  Just wish I knew what day this week he's coming.

I also got Captain America - The First Avenger (in 3D) so guess what I'm watching after the girls are all tucked up in bed.  When I say watching I really mean whilst I'm crocheting (see earlier post).  I was given this DVD on Valentines Day (love the wrapping paper - yup it's the bag from the shop lol) along with a gorgeous rose & some chocolates but I've been a goodish girl and only watched this once (or twice) since it was given to me.  Yup I'm one of those people that love to watch the same movie over & over.  All I need now is Cap. America Two, Iron Man Two & then the new Marvel movies when they come out & I will be in Marvel Heaven.  Love all the Stan Lee cameos. Well I had better go as my inner Geek/nerd is showing.

Happy Crafting everyone.

Crochet fun.

Hi Lovelies,

Well today is a Monday so I've been at the Tuck-shop, dropped off/picked up the girls and we've gone to Karate.  Emsy "hates" it, until we get there & then seems to enjoy herself.  We (by that I mean me mainly) have to push her to go.  She has lessons at the back of Buderim about half an hour from where we live.  Lils loves going, as there are some other young kids there to play with as well as a playground.  I get to do some "Out and about" craft done.  I have been teaching myself how to Crochet from You-tube.

I have made each of my girls "Knee Rugs".  I used these videos to make the flowers Video 1, video 2, video 3.  I used this video for the granny square and this video for joining them together.  Then decided to make myself one with some of the left over wool.  I take my bag of bits & bobs when we go out to places like Karate or Lils swimming lessons.  I hate not having something to do & this stops me from playing on my phone & racking up a huge bill because of the data that I use to play Hay Day - darn addictive time wasting, but oh so much fun game.  Originally I was making this for my sister, because my ferals, er kids decided that I should.  But I really like the colours so sorry sis this one's mine.   Maybe the next one will be yours.

Have a great week everyone & happy crafting

Organised - maybe not.

Hi Lovelies,

I just realized today that it's been awhile since I last blogged.  I got so side tracked with life, crafting & school that I forgot to take time to blog & lets not mention all the photos I haven't taken of my projects to so I could share with you all.  I dislike taking photos of my stuff as I never seem to capture it well.  Thank goodness for Gimp I say.  ;p

I have come to the conclusion that I'm not going to beat myself up over these "lapses" or that I seem to be going off in a completely different direction with my craft at the moment.  For this year I am going to try to adopt a more relaxed attitude to life in general.  I am not going to put pressure on myself to enter card challenges or have something to blog about.  

I've just spent the whole afternoon taking heaps of photos of things I've been doing (that are still here), editing these photos and turning most of them into colleges.  That is in between referee-ing the ferals, er kids.

Here is a picture of said kids.  Lils is so proud of herself as she put her togs (swimmers) top on by herself.  I didn't have the heart to tell her it is side-ways.  Hence the funny look of the top or the nipple peeking out lol.  It has cross over straps which make it so hard to do.  I figure she gets points for trying.

We are about to start our fourth week of school - my how time is flying by.  I've now got a routine of sorts happening.  Mondays I spend two hours in the primary school tuck-shop after dropping the girls to their classrooms.  Last Monday I iced around fifty cupcakes among-st other things.   Wednesdays I'm helping out in Lils' class with finger gym.  It only takes about half an hour & the kids love it.  It helps build up muscles in their fingers to help them grip pencils.

Our after school stuff is on Mondays & Thursdays.  Emsy has Karate on Mondays & Lils is still doing swimming lessons at the public pool on Thursdays.  Where I catch up with some of the other NCC mums, it's like we can't stay away from each other.  I'm guessing as the year goes on it our week will only get fuller with stuff.

With that in mind, I'm getting slowly organised.  It started out with my (very small) craft room.  I turned a cereal box into a desk top caddy, to hold my tapes, foam tape, card bases, pens and pencils. I now have three caddies if you include the mini scrape tote & the wire basket that holds my pens, glues, scissors, two handled punches and a ruler.   I used up some more Kaisercraft six and a half inch pads to do this.  Then I added some die cuts to it (from Daisy Chain).  I also did the same to an empty envelope box and put my paints in it.

For the girls I've been trying to get super organised.  They each have their own cork board.  Emsy's I did about three years ago.  Lils' I did last week, all I've done for it so far is paint the border.  I am going to get some wooden letters for her & will decorate them.  Each girl has a "Weekly" sheet, and a pouch.  On their weekly sheet they have what uniform they are wearing each day. (Emsy has three different uniforms & Lilly has two).  They also have a few everyday jobs they have to do.  I've also left spaces for their homework to be kept here.  So it's not conveniently lost.  For Lilly I've also added a weekly spot for her letters & word of the week.  So we can practice at home.  I wrote on a yellow (Lils favourite colour) c/stock the Week, Slow letter, fast letter & word then covered it with clear plastic that wipes clean & stuck it to the outside of her pouch.  This way I can look at it at a glance, to see where we are at. I love that white board pens work so well on this plastic.

I've even given myself a house work roster and have since discovered I'm not the only one to do this, if YouTube is to be believed.  I don't feel like a dolt now.  I still have a long way to go before I feel that I am there (where ever there is).  But from what I've been discovering on You Tube, anything is possible.  I especially like that there are so many people are just like me.  I really love all the thrifty ideas.  I may have to start going to the charity shops again.  Not just the back dock where I've been dropping off my dontations tee hee.

Well the girls are back in the pool, so I'd better go be a good mum and supervise.

Practice piece

Hi Lovelies,

Toady I thought I would share with you an image that I coloured the other day.

I'm sorry about the shiny spots on this image.  I'm having "issues" with photography & my laptop.  Not sure what's going on.  After watching this video on YouTube I decided to have a go at doing the background of this Saturated Canary image.  I then went on to practice my shading with my Copics as well a using colours.  I'm trying a few different things here.  The hair combo is ok but am not sure it works that well.  Admittedly it does look a bit better in real life.  I do love the other colours.  Especially the red apples.  As I have yet to get some more Red Copics that I can put together easily. On the plus size this isn't that bad that I can't use it on a project of some sort.  I am also really pleased with how her face came out.  I had a go at shading around her nose area after watching this video.  I even tried the way she has done her eyes.  

Supplies:

Copic paper

Saturated Canary Digi image - Snow White

Copics:
Apples: R02, R05, R27, R29, R59, YG23, YG17,YG67,E25
Skin: E0000, E50, E00, R22
Lips: E04, R22,
Eyes: B00, B01, B02,B06
Basket: E31, E33, E35, 57
Hair: Y23, E31, E33, E35, E79
Dress: BG01, BG05, BG07, BG09, V000, V01, V04, Y11, Y02,Y06, Y08, YR68

Washi tape & Copics

Hi Lovelies

Today I'm back to share a card I made for this CAS(E) Sketch challenge.

I love sketches as you know.  This one was such fun to follow.  I decided to use some Washi tape to make the stripes behind the stamped image.  Then inked the edges just to give it some more definition.  I had pre-stamped a bunch of images onto Copic paper ages ago.  So decided to do some colouring.   I've been playing around with colour & shading.  I have found such great pins on Pinterest & blogs as well.  I have a board devoted to Copics Colour of the day by Jennifer Dove & you can see it here.  I have a couple of other boards dedicated to Copics & colours as well.  I did make a mistake on the image & had to add the bow to cover it up.  I figure with all these books & movies around at the moment involving archers, I'd be ok.   I then added some dots for the background & they didn't turn out as well as I'd like.  Now that I've you tubed dot background tutorials I hope to get better.

Have a great day & happy crafting.

Back to School

Hi Lovelies,

Well it's that time of year again.  My babies are now big school girls :(  Emsy started grade three on Wednesday & Bill went on Wednesday so she could get a feel for Prep or "Big School" as we have started calling it.  Then Bill had Thursday off & came back on Friday to find out her class/teacher.  She starts full time Monday.  So both of my babies aren't babies anymore.  I can't believe how time has flown by.  It only seems like last week she started Kindy.  Now she's at school five days a week.

Don't you just love the look on Bill's face.  I wish I knew what she was thinking.  I think Doug interrupted her & Emsy's bonding time over a Captain Underpants book.

Lilly really did want to go school as you can see here.  Emsy looks older than eight don't you think?

Here she is with her teacher Mrs Diggines (who was Emsy's Prep teacher) in the top photo & with one of her mates Liana (pronounced Lee-arna) who she went to Kindy with.

I also can't believe that January has nearly finished.  It seems like the new year was only a few days ago.  I think this year is going to be a quick one.  I do hope that the rest of summer doesn't have really hot days.  Our ducted air con has broken & isn't covered by our insurance.  Apparently Motor Burn out is extra.  I wish I knew about it when we where setting up our insurances.  I now have to wait till November to add it to our policy.  It will probably take us that long to save up the money to fix the problem.  Pity I can't sleep in the pool tee hee.