You are special

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Hello to you all on this lovely rainy day :)

Yes, I'm one of those people who cheers when I hear it rain. Here in Perth we have sun for so much of the year, rain is a real treat. It also rains for such short periods of time that when--like today--we have a good hour or two of solid rain, well I'm in heaven :)

Here's a new card for you:


I've had the backing piece for several months now, maybe even 2 or 3 and I just never got the right inspiration to finish it off. Nothing felt quite right (are you noticing a trend in my cardmaking lately?!)
I'm not going to go into detail on the "how to's" as I think most of it is pretty self explanatory--as always, feel free to email me/leave a comment if you have any questions.

Here are the products I used;
THe backing card:
Hero Arts fern silhouette woodblock stamp, friends definition
Distress ink in Walnut Stain, Forest Moss, Peeled Pain (just a little)
White embossing powder
Versamark ink

The central label;
I hand-cut the label after tracing around one from a tag on something I got in the mail the other day but it's a spellbinders Labels #9. (must buy...drags mouse over to a2zscrapbookingsupplies.com link...CLICK)
Distress ink in Antique Linen, Wild Honey, Black soot
Hero Arts Flourish Grid woodblock stamp (it's very pale but shows up more in real life)
Hero Arts Great Flourishes messages (sentiment)
Memento tuxedo black ink
Perfect pearls in Kiwi

extra items--gold ribbon, glossy accents (around edge of label), 4" paper doily, black bazzill cardstock, Prima say it with pearls flourish (discontinued).

Here's a close up look so you can see the shimmer of the perfect pearls--gorgeous right?!

Hope you like it!!

thanks so much for looking

Hello again & "Splish Splash" card

Hi again!!

Sorry it's been so long! As you know, Charlotte had her surgery on Thursday and it all went PERFECTLY!!! *sigh of relief*. I was so stressed in the lead-up to the surgery I nearly blacked out a few times and the morning of?! Well I was shaking.

Anyhoo, it's all over now and we're back home. She has a tiny 2 inch scar on her right side and it's healing nicely. She may need another surgery when she's about a year old, but we'll come to that when we get there!! Thank you for all of your support, I received quite a few messages of 'good luck' from you lovely ladies and I appreciated them so much.

I was so excited in hospital to receive an email from the lovely Virginia, who congratulated me on being the random winner--and I am pretty random--of the Hero Arts prize for having their blinkie on my blog!! I can't wait to get my package of Christmas goodies in the mail!! *claps hands* Thanks again Virginia for letting me know, I REALLY needed that good news to calm my nerves and give me a dose of good luck at such a stressful time.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my ASTOUNDINGLY wonderful friend Linda (from a2zscrapbookingsupplies.com). She stayed up till nearly midnight (her time) chatting with me on email and keeping me sane, just to make sure Charlotte got through the surgery ok and that I didn't break down completely. Linda--we've only been friends a short while really but I love you SO much and I value your friendship more than I can say.
Ok mushy moment over--I'm gettin' a bit teary!

OK ON TO THE CARD!!!

The pics aren't the best, as usual SORRY.




I really fought with this card, it took me ages to get all the elements just right.

How I did it:
*I used the Hero arts cloud stamp for the sky with Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I also used the cloud stamp for the ground, but this time with Versamark ink (on blue cardstock) and Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Weathered wood. I then used Glossy Accents for the puddles. In real life, they look fantastic. Just like water.
*Hero arts Mi Casa clear stamp set for the house and I used the brickwork on the roof and a masking technique to make the rest of the house brickwork too. (That took some work!!). Then I coloured it with copics. I used a white gel pen to make little 'reflection' marks on the windows.
*The little girl image is from The Greeting Farm, she's coloured with copics.
*The fence is a Martha Stewart edge punch
*The tiny strip of grass you can see behind the fence is using my pinking shears on green cardstock. (terrible to use fabric scissors on paper, i know, but just this once ok?!)

The rest is pretty self explanatory, buttons for flowers, layered the card onto yellow and grey cardstock to give it a frame and then onto a black card, setniment 'splish splash' is using black rub-ons.

The inside of the card is here:


I just repeated the image and coloured the boots and raincoat for some added interest.

The sentiment says "I know you've been through a rough time lately, but remember-without storms, we wouldn't have PUDDLES!". I was searching all day for a puddle-quote, but NOTHING! I liked the idea of Friends being like puddles, they're what will make you smile after a storm, but I just couldn't get the wording to be quite right. Hopefully this makes sense. I'm one of the few people who love rain storms, so I wasn't sure if it would!

Anyway, I have a baby waking up so I have to run! Hopefully I haven't missed anything!

Talk to you all soon, thanks for looking!!




PS Do you all prefer this style of 'how to'?? I usually write up the instructions in a paragraph style but it seems so wordy! Would you like more or less detail on how I make my cards? I'd do videos but youtube seems to hate me at the moment. Please comment and let me know if you have a preferred 'way'!!
thanks :)

Striped background Hydrangea card

Hi again,

a quickie tonight...this is a card using a hydrangea image that I've had waiting for several weeks to be used. I had it with a different background completely but it just didn't work for me.

SO! Here's the totally reworked card, with the original centre piece.



The backing piece of kraft cardstock is stamped with the Hero Arts stripes background cling stamp in Snow White Papertrey Ink ink.
I stamped the La Lettre stamp (using Pumice Stone D.I) onto ivory cardstock, distress inked the edges.
I coloured the hydrangea image with copics. I used the EK Success Moroccan edger punch on some brown & green bazzil cardstock and touched the edges of the green with the copic marker I used on the flower. I then added some dark satin brown ribbon & Papertrey Ink string and finished it off with a silver ornament from my stash.
I finished the card off with some silver eyelets and PTI string & a hand punched tag using a fiskars handpunch.
The two sentiments are from Hero Arts All occasion messages and are both stamped wiht Versacolour Pinecone ink. The larger sentiment is being held by a Tim Holtz memo pin.

I hope you like it :)

I've mentioned this before, but just a reminder that my 6 month old daughter, Charlotte is having surgery on Thursday so I'm not sure when I'll get to post again, but I will be back, God willing that everything go well with the surgery. Please keep her in your prayers that everything goes well and she's returned to us safely.

My Little Family Layout

Hello!!!

Sorry it's been so long, I've been working on a few projects at once this week and they all took FOREVER!!! One of them is finally finished and I'll show you in a moment.

Firstly a quick apology for not posting more often. I was happily posting every day or two there for a while but this last week or two has just been a nightmare for many different reasons--none of which I'll bore with you but lets just suffice it to say that by the time 9:30pm rolls around and both my beautiful girls are asleep, my "creat-ometer" is hitting below the red line!!
I sit at my craft table and think...'inspiration?! where are you now?!?!' and I usually end up watching some tv or a movie on my lap top AT my craft desk (is that blasphemous??) and I colour in some images with copics...and then the images never go further than that! Otherwise I'm chatting with the beautiful Linda from a2zscrapbookingsupplies.com--->>> see the link over there in pink?? CLICK!!! GO ON!! CLICK CLICK!! She's the best and it's shopping that helps a fantastic cause. So it's like you're not really spending at all, cause you're giving back too!! (That's what I'm telling myself...*wink*)
But don't you get too friendly with her now cause I might get jealous :) I'm not ready to share my new friend *hearts to Linda*

ANYHOO. Here is what took me about THREE days to get done. I kept walking by it during the day to see if inspiration hit and then finally after watching HEAPS of the genius-that-is-Nichol-Magouirk on youtube, I felt the tingling in my spine that sent me rushing to my desk to finish.

Sorry for the terrible photos yet again! I can't wait to get a light box for my photos!!

I've added a few pics of this so you can see the details.

This first pic is what the layout looked like when my inspiration waned... I liked it but didn't REALLY like it. It just felt kinda naked


The next one is the finished product:



Here are a few extras so you can see the details:





And here's my furbaby Toby sniffing my layout, no doubt wondering why the heck it's in the pot plant!! lol (outside light Toby, it's all about natural light :))




The products I used are WIDE & VARIED!! The ones I can name are:
green rosette: Bazzil cardstock & Kaisercraft brad
Blue Rosette & background paper: DCWV Garden Party Stack 12x12
Stamps ('Admit one' ticket, 'order' ticket & 'Original' and 'There is Noone like you'): PTI "It's official" and "Larkspurs" sets (both July release)
Green thickers: American Crafts "Rockabye"
Teal chipboard letters:chipz by Bella
Inks: Walnut Stain, Antique linen, Black Soot & Pumice stone Distress Inks Tim Holtz.
EK Success Scalloped Scallop edge punch (behind main photo).
String (or Jute Twine I think it's called): PTI
Spiral notebook page die (from Order ticket at top with handwritten journalling) PTI.

Besides these listed, the rest are from my stash. The journalling was printed onto standard printer paper, then inked & mounted on some pretty paper from the above paper pack.
One of the little details that I'm especially proud of is on the Admit One tickets (which I stamped on cream cardstock and distressed). I've used a perforator tool from Tonic to seperate the tickets so they look like the real tickets you find at a fair. (Well I assume so, we don't have fairs here in Australia!!) I crumpled them up and even wet them a little with my water spritzer to make them look as though they'd been crumpled up in someone's pocket all day while mad rollercoaster rides were taken & too much sugar was eaten. Actually, I don't have a ticket die yet, so these were just cut out with scissors and I used the edge of my corner chomper 'stub' side, to cut those little nibs out of the corners.

I started this layout planning a pretty & simple style but as usual, my shabby-chic/distressed tendencies took over, so I just went with it. I'm pretty happy & I plan on doing many more layouts in the future. I can't wait to get my flags stamp from Hero Arts--that little baby is going to be used till it falls apart I think!!!

Ok, I'm done!! Hope you like it, please leave me some feedback--if you have any ideas of how I could have improved this that's great too!!

Thanks so much for looking. I'll try to be back soon.

sorry its been so long

Hello again my lovelies

this is just a quick note to say I'm still here!! I haven't forgotten you, I've just had a week where getting to my craft desk has been difficult.

As I've mentioned before, my 6 month old daughter Charlotte, needs surgery in a few weeks and I've just had a few days this week where the thought was making me internally shut down a bit. I'm feeling better now as I'm doing my best to stay positive.

My gorgeous hubby just helped me set up a new swish (impressive) printer and tidy my craft area, so I'm looking forward to finishing the few projects I have on the go at the moment. One is a suprise for someone extra special, so I can't say too much, but I'll try to finish the others so you'll have something to look at when you stop by!

I've also been fighting with youtube to get a video uploaded. Current score as follows: Linda 0, Youtube 2. hmmm

anyway, it's late and I'm going to try to get a bit of time in with my beloved papers :)

talk to you all soon--thanks for your patience :)

Back to School

Hi!!

THis will have to be a super quick post.

This is my entry for the Hero Arts back to school challenge for August.

I started thinking back to school and the idea of having a little girl in front of the school came to mind. Then, when playing with my new PTI School Time stamps, the writing lines with the dashed line in the center looked exactly like a road to me, so I used that too.
I thought the house from the Mi casa stamp set looked like a little town's "school house" (think Anne of Green Gables!!) but with the chimeny and roof, it looked too much like a house...so CHOP CHOP!!

I purposely used a darker colour for the girl's skin as I wanted her to look kind of flushed and extra pink. I tried to make it look like she's wearing a uniform, thus the several shades of blue (memories from my school uniform!!)

I've used felt for the grass, cut with pinking shears and attached with Glossy Accents. The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory.

Super cute if I say so!!







Here are the stats;
Stamps: Hero Arts 'Mi casa es su casa' & 'Sweet, wonderful you' clear stamp sets
PTI School TIme stamp set, Stampin Up! Rough edges alpha.
Inks: Tim holtz distress ink in Walnut stain, Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot, Hero Arts Soft Pool shadow ink, Versa Mark (inside card)
Copic markers: B99, BG10, E37, E15, YR14, R02, B95, B34 & E57


Hope you like it!! THanks so much for looking.

I like Beeeing with you--etsy inspired challenge #99

Hi Everyone!

Its late so I have to make this as quick as I can.

After reading Virginia's blog the other day I thought I'd take part int the etsy-inspired challenge #99. I've not done this before but my eye was taken by this gorgeous head-piece by Becky Kazana:


and I immediately started thinking of blue skies behind bright yellow flowers... so THIS is what came to be:



Sorry for the terrible photo--I REALLY need to get a photo light box...gah. The light in my parents house is *horrifyingly dim* for photography....

This card WOULD have been finished last night but my 2 year old Isabella liked it so much when she saw it sitting on my work desk this momrnign that she decided to pull it apart so she could have the bees...she's never done this before and I nearly collapsed when I came in and everything was torn to pieces. Poor little love, I really snapped at her too! I don't think she thought she was doing anything wrong. However, the fact that I'd stayed up till midnight last night to make it may have lead me to want to blow up a little more than it usually might have.

I really struggle with simple cards, they never look finished to me, despite loving them when other's create them.

I think this is about as simple as I can get :)

It's also the first time I've really done a 'paper-piecing' type card, with more than one element added.

I added an extra 'e' to the sentiment coz I felt like the pun was a bit lost...I wish it was in all the sentiments in this set.

Here are the stats:

card: American crafts "ocean" cardstock. The green I used for the leaves had no name, but it's also AC.
DCWV Citrus 8x8 paper stack (for the bees, they're actually polka dot)
Hero Arts Be Happy clear stamp set.
Hero Arts gemstones (bees eye).
Simonsaysstamp freebie pearls in centre of flowers.
Prima e-line flowers.
Tim Holtz Distress Inks in: Spiced Marmalade (flowers & background piece), Black soot& Broken China
Papertrey Ink Background Basics retro stamp set (on orange paper in background)
Buttons--my stash
Corner chomper-rounder
Hero ARrts clouds woodblock stamp.
Hero Arts Soft Pool shadow ink.

anyhoo, it's super late==I'm off to try to figure out how to link this back to the etsyinspired challenge blog....

hope you liked it!! THanks so much for popping in!! (PS sorry for the typos! It's late!! *yawn*)