Double trouble

Hi Gorgeous Peeps,

Yup back again, shocking I know ;p.  Two days running for blogging woo hoo!  Todays' post is about this gorgeous sketch from Retro Sketches and two cards.

I made the top card for the challenge and then when I was finished I noticed how similar it was to the bottom card that I had made on Friday at a friend's place.  How weird is that?  I brought the Gorjuss stamp on Thursday on my way home from the movies.  I think she's so sweet and I am enjoying colouring her in with my copics.  I've even been practicing my black hair colouring.  I think it's getting better.  I decided to go with the yellows/blues on the top card, colours I normally wouldn't use.

Have a great day & happy crafting

Blast off birthday

Hi Gorgeous Peeps,

I'm back again to share a quick card that I had made this morning using this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I love sketches they are so much fun to play with.

I'm using up a Kaisercraft 6.5 x 6.5 inch pad called Blast off.  I actually made this with some scraps from the pack.  It involved a little bit of fussy cutting and the sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set called Boys Will Be Boys.  The "Alien" is popped dotted up just for a bit of fun.  

Well the natives aka my girls are getting restless so had better go do Mum Stuff I guess ;p.  Btw this is my second post for the day.  

Just a few cards

Hello my gorgeous peeps,

I'm back after a busy week of recovering from a cold and doing "Mum Stuff".  I have been card making as well - so don't feel to sorry for me.  I have found a place in Nambour that will sell my cards for me (as well as some bags I made awhile back).  So have been busy making cards to sell.  Here's hoping they do well.  I also received an order for 12 cards from a friend yesterday.  So I will be busy over the weekend.  I promised my girls that we'd go "Fathers' Day" shopping this morning and then I'd make them a card each to give to Doug.  Plus this afternoon we're going on a playdate to a friend of Bill's.  I haven't told her yet.  Or I wouldn't get any peace.   Plus somewhere in there the dog needs a walk.

So here a few of the cards I've made to sell.  I'm hoping they do well, but won't be disappointed if they don't sell.  At this stage of my life I'm just happy to be card making.  A lot of these cards were based on sketches from some of my favourite challenge blogs.  See the left side bar to check out these fun sites.  

Well peeps it's time to get going for the day.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and to all of those celebrating Fathers' Day tomorrow have a great day.  

Retro Sketch #228

Hi Lovelies,

Well I think I've succumbed to Doug's Man Flu.  I look & feel like a bus has run me over & then backed up for another go.  So no Tuckshop for me today.  It's something I do for a few hours every Monday to help out.  Instead here is a card I made yesterday for the latest Retro Sketch Challenge.

    

Because I used a previously printed digi image from Saturated Canary I couldn't turn the top layer into the fun shape.  I had a great time colouring Canary Love in with my Copics.  Unfortunately this is one of the few images I have left of her as I have managed to lose my USB stick of Digi Images that I had brought.  So when the dh is feeling charitable I might have to re-invest in her again.

Well lovelies, have a great day & happy crafting.  Thanks for stopping by.

A creative week.

Hi Lovelies,

This last week I have had a very creative time.  I have managed to make use of my Scraps and some digital images that I had previously coloured.  I am trying very hard to not cut up or buy anything new.  I want to thin out my supplies some more. So I managed to put these cards together with bits from my pp "leftovers" stash.

These four cards I put together using images that I had previously coloured and not done anything with.  Which made for some quick cards.  I decided to do something a little different with the "Princess" card.  I was inspired by this challenge that was on Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.  I was too busy to put it in as second entry.  Apparently being a mother means I actually have to do "Mum" things, Who knew right?

Lilly had a friend over earlier today for a playdate.  So last night I made cupcakes, the icing and the mixture for mini quiches.  So that all I had to do today was make this card, cook the quiches and ice the cupcakes.

Zoe hasn't been well lately so she wanted me to make Zoe a get well card.  Bill picked out the image chose the purple for the mermaid and the sentiment that she wanted.  So while I was making this card, "The Mongrel Bloody Dog" decided to eat all 24 mini quiches that I had cooling on the bench (they had just come straight out of the oven).  Pippa the poohead is very lucky to be alive now, as well as big girl.  Emsy was in the same room as the dog & didn't see her eat anything off the bench.  Grrrrr at least we got to eat the last 6 that where cooking while Pippa was banned from the house.  Kids & dogs who'd have 'em!  At least the playdate was a success.  We even saw Doug once, he's dying from "Man Flu" at the moment.  Although Amanda (Zoe's Mum) thought I sounded worse than Doug.  Apparently my cold has affected him way worse than me.

Have a great day & happy crafting.

Just a note...

Hi Lovelies,

Today's post is based on this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

 

This is such a sweet & easy sketch.  Although I had to add the banner as I dropped my sentiment stamp as I lifted it.  Creating a "Shadow" on the first half of the sentiment.  I hate it when I do dumb things like that.  I die cut the typewriter image out with my nestability circle die & managed to get the banner out of the scraps leftover from that.  The orange pp was in my "Scrap Stash" & matched perfectly with the typewriter.

Enjoy your day & happy crafting everyone.

A well deserved holiday

Hi Lovelies,

Today's post is school related - don't worry there's no tests or homework involved.  Phew!!

Emsy's grade 4 teacher Mr Monroe is finishing up today.  He is about to start his long service leave and won't be back for the rest of the year.  So I made a card (Double Z fold) for him and added it to the mug rug that I had made earlier in the year.  I also wrapped up some chocolates for him as well.

Which somehow I managed to co-ordinate.  I can't believe how good I did.  Since I picked up the pp yesterday at Daisy Chain Scrapbooks.  Gotta love that.

This card was only my second attempt (the first one being Mr Monroe's card) at a Double Z fold card.  I really like the way it turned out and can see myself doing some more of these.  The pp is from Kaisercraft's Barber Shoppe collection .  The cars and quote where on the very bottom (the other side of the dpp had the collection info on it) of the pp.  Which is always a fun thing.  

Have a wonderful day & happy crafting.

Geometric card.

Hi Lovelies,

Today's card is a bit of "A difficult child" for me.  I had actually made another card to enter into the latest challenge over at Creative with Stamps.   I didn't think it was challenge worthy but still a nice card.  This card took a little effort, time and patience.  I had to glue each hexagon down.

 

I yet again made this card with leftovers.  The die cut honeycomb and the "waste" from the die went into this card.  The papers are from Kaisercraft and the sentiment is Hero Arts.  I don't own any geometric stamps so had to "make do" with what I have.  I tried really hard to match the hexagons up so when the card is flat it looks like they are all together.  I found this blog through Just a Dotty Pudding - Jo's blog which you can visit here.

Have a great day & happy crafting

Another Dad? card

Hi Lovelies,

Okay so I'm entering this card into two challenges.  Firstly I'm using the sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday.  I flipped the sketch & added a second row.  Hope that's okay.

 

This is also my entry for Die Cut Divas.  Over on their blog this month's challenge is August Vacations.  So for this card to be eligible for the Die Cut Divas challenge, an explanation maybe in order.

When I was a little girl (about 30 ish years ago now) we lived in Western Australia.  Now for those of you that don't know W.A. that well it's on the large side (and maybe one of the largest states in Australia).  I've lived all over W.A. but mainly in the northern parts think 12 hours (driving) north of the capital Perth.   My Nanna lived about 2 hours south of Perth in a place called Mandurah. A very pretty beachside town.  So every time we went on vacation (we visited Nanna a lot) we had to drive to get there.  In fact on my last holiday to W.A. we spent about 7-8 hours driving from Perth to Shark's Bay. With a very cranky 2 yr old and a 6 yr old in the car.   It was well worth the long drive - my mum was laughing (she was in her own car) as she could see an arm continuously feeding biscuits to the cranky 2 yr old for the last hour of the trip ;D.

Have a great day & happy crafting.  To see my first post for today please check it out here.

A card for Dad.

Hi Lovelies,

Today's card has been inspired by this wonderful sketch from Retro Sketches.

 

With Father's Day fast approaching here in Australia.  I thought I had better make some cards for my girly girls to give to their Daddy.  'Coz a kid has to have choices, don't ya know (tee hee).  Again I used up some scraps from my slowly dwindling pile of pp.  I am trying very hard to use up the bits before I cut into the new stuff.  Also since I haven't brought any new stamps (well I did buy one) for almost two years now. I have been mixing them up.  The sentiment is Hero Arts & the car is from Kaisercraft.  The button, paper string and brads are from my stash (that is sooooooooooooo old) so not sure who made them.

Well sweeties have a great day & happy crafting.

Rudolf is for red...

Hi Lovelies,

Well after a very busy week/weekend.  I am finally able to do another post.

Over on Jingle Belles this fortnight's prompt is red.  Which was a very good excuse to use up most of the red glitter paper & some of the white glitter snowflakes.  Plus a little bit of red/white pp that I had left over from another project.  Simple, easy with a tiny bit of fussy cutting around the stamped sentiment.

Have a great day & thanks for stopping by

Happy Birthday Emsy :D

Hi Lovelies,

Today's post is a celebration of the last ten years.  Yup ten years ago today Emsy was born.  I can't believe that it has been ten years already.

  
  

 My baby is no longer.  She is becoming a real little lady now.  I keep telling her once she hits double digits it's all down hill mwhaa mwhaaaaa haaaa haaa.  She doesn't get it, but hey I have fun.  So we have been busy getting ready for her big day.  Yesterday afternoon we (Emsy, Lils & I) made twenty eight cupcakes for her class.  I wrapped up all her gifts while she was at school.  Organised for Bill (Lilly) to pick out a card and put an Itunes gift card in it.  Gave Bill her charm for her bangle (it's a late birthday gift).  So this morning after having breaky at Macca's, dropping the girls off at school and putting Doug back to bed, I get to make a cake for home.  Tomorrow night Grandad and Grandi are coming over for dinner.  As they can't make it tonight (awwwwe).

Well peeps have a great day and happy crafting.

Survival Tips

Hi Lovelies,

Today's card is a bit naughty and hopefully inappropriate.

I made this card after visiting Jo's blog.  I really liked the idea of the challenge over on Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.  Of course there where loads of Inappropriate stuff I could have done, but alas I either didn't have the images or the courage tee hee.  It was while I was making another card that I found the snowflake die cut and that's when I got the idea for this card.  Both of my girls love this card & I've heard them quoting the sentiment numerous times of late.  Yes that is my handwriting.  I used my Copics to colour the pearls and snowflake yellow as well as the edge of the card.  The sentiment is coloured with a combination of perfect pearls/water and yellow ink that I spritzed onto a rectangle die cut.  Simple, fun and hopefully inappropriate.

Well I'm off to do "crafty stuff" have a great day.

Butterfly Love

Hi Lovelies,

I thought today I would share with you some pictures of where I craft.  Doug, the kids (sometimes) and I all share a small space, we call the office.  Just a few days ago I did a revamp of my "side".  Now it seems like we have more room and I do infact have space to use when I decide to attack the cube storage system on Doug's side.  So not looking forward to that.  It's chock full of my sewing stuff and some office stuff.  But hopefully it won't be as painful as I think.

My desk use to be in front of the window, so now it's next to Doug's desk with my old paper storage rack in the corner with my stereo on top of it.  Also when I craft my laptop just fits up there.  I'm thinking the stereo needs a new home.  Maybe on the floor  on on one of the lower shelves on the side of my desk.  I'd hate to knock off my laptop and knowing my luck that would happen.  So far my new space seems to be working.  I've told the tribe that my stuff/area is off limits.  I get sick of see about two foot of "crap" on top of my desk all the time.  Today I found fluffy dice on my trolley - thanks Bill.  I swear that girl does this to drive me crazier.  

The other day I decided that I was "wasting" way too much time on trying to find the right colour Distress Ink for my projects.  Even though I have them all right in front of me  me in the black shelving unit on my desk.  So I came up with this idea.   I have something similar on canvas that I made years ago.  But I think because it got way too much light some of the colours have faded.  It's still a pretty piece of art but not useful.  So I decided to make a new chart.  I used the Hero Arts butterfly from one of the digi kits I got years and years ago.  Printed up five pages of eight butterflies.  Yep I have nearly that many colours.  I then proceeded to colour them all in and cut them out.  I used two pieces of Bazzil "French Vanilla" which I cut into four, six inch squares.  I then used glue dots to adhere the butterflies into what I think are similar colours, wrote the colour beside each one and blue tacked them to the wall in front of my desk.  So simple & pretty.  I inked the edges of the c/s with Walnut stain just to give them a border.  I figure this was the simplest way to do display my colours and a cheap way  that lets me add to them if needed.  

Well beautiful peeps I'm off to wrangle kids, "stupid" the dog and maybe a husband if he is awake. 

Have a great day sweeties....

Recurring theme...

Hi Lovelies,

I'm back again.  This is actually my second post for today, for the first please go here.

  

So as you can see I used this sketch, as my inspiration.  I used up some leftovers that I had from making the previous card.  I was playing around with my mini misters and inks that I had.  I seem to be on a butterfly run at the moment.  Over the last three to four days all I seem to be doing is stamping, colouring and punching out butterflies with the occasional other die thrown in for good luck.

Thank you once again for stopping by.  Have a great day sweeties...

Watercolour Butterfly

Hi Lovelies,

Today I'm entering one card into three challenges.

Firstly I used this sketch as the starting point for my card.  And from CASology I used this week's theme of Watercolour.  Also I'm entering the "Pop of Colour" here.  I hope I haven't added too many layers for either challenge.  But I wanted to use watercolour paper as my base.  Then added two die cuts, a butterfly and three gems.  The purple squiggle behind the butterfly is my watercolouring attempt.  For me this is about as "clean and simple" as I've ever gotten.

Thanks for dropping by today.  Hopefully I will get around to my favourite blogs again soon & leave you all some love.   Have a great day sweeties.............

Butterfly dreams...

Hi Lovelies,

Tonight I'm entering in my first challenge for this year (YAY).

Click here to go to the latest challenge over at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.  I am really pleased with they way my card came out.  I don't do simple normally so this for me is wonderful.  I love the colours, the glitter and the fact that this is all made from scraps or left overs.  So gotta love that.  I also tried a new technique for me - the circle frame.  I can't believe how easy they are to make with the nesties and my new Big Shot.  

When Helen was up we went to Craft Online.  I brought some more "Supplies" that I couldn't live with out.  One of which is this gorgeous Distress Ink (from Ranger) Crushed Pistachio.  I used it to colour the Butterfly, the circle and the thin strip of c/s behind the pearls.  I also sprayed them with my new favourite mist from Kaisercraft - Kaiser Mists white.  I added Star Dust Stickles to the dots on the wings and the shimmer it adds in real life is amazing.  I just wish my photography could do it justice.  The sentiment is a Kaisercraft clear stamp from Enchanted Garden.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

It's been awhile

Hi Lovelies,

It's been a very long time between posts.  It's funny how a change in location can affect the way your life goes.  Since moving house at the end of 2014, I think it's taken this long to get settled.  So much so that I had completely stopped crafting for over 12 months.  Which meant this blog got neglected.  So here I am dusting off the cobwebs, vacuuming out the dust bunnies and trying to remember how to blog.  I've even had to you tube some tutorials on using Gimp 2.8 (yet again) so I can hopefully show some pictures of what I've been doing of late.  I'm also thinking I may have to do a revamp of my blog some time soon.  Just to keep me interested.

Recently my wonderful friend Helen was on the coast for a holiday (she moved to Sydney just after we moved in)  & we had a wonderful time catching up.  It was actually her idea to start blogging again.  So thank you Helen for reminding me what fun times I've had with this blog.

This is all of us at a local look out above Nambour (on the way to Mapleton).  It was rather cool that day & a little windy.  We had just picked the girls up from school so they didn't have a chance to change out of their school uniforms.  The girls had a great time playing in the tiny park at the look out which gave Helen a chance to grab some great photos.  (These are all hers)

I'm not sure if I have posted about our newest family member before but here is a photo of our "Baby" Pippa.  Who Smudge (the cat) absolutely hates.  So much so that for the first 7 - 9 months after Pippa arrived Smudge wouldn't leave our bedroom or our bed.  Howard Hughes eat your heart out :p.

According to the Noosa RSPCA Pippa is a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog.  Personally I think she's not purebred but I guess they where only going on what her mother is.  I can't wait for the puppy stage to be finished.  Yes at nearly 30 kg and about 60cm high she's still a pup.  I have at least another  12 months before she hopefully settles down.  I'm sick of finding things chewed up!  She even ate the ignition switch on my Webber BBQ, can you believe that.  It may look cute, but I know better.

Well lovelies I'd better go - Smudge is cracking up about something.  Either she wants out of the house or thinks I should go to bed.  Dopey cat!

Huge hugs to you all - Paula