a thought...

Sitting at my craft table, 

colouring a pretty flower--slowly, calmly;

Listening as the rain falls outside my window

My precious, loved ones sleeping nearby.

Debussy plays quietly as I work 

What a lovely moment--I'm so grateful for it--

And for all of you :)

Goodnight xx

Sarah Martina is having a Garage Sale!!

...but seriously, please don't go over there, coz I wanna buy all her stuff :) lol!!

Check her GOOOORGEOUS blog out HERE

As I'm sure you all remember, the card I had tweeted about by Hero Arts, was inspired by Sarah!  You can see that post HERE

Feel free to pop on over to her blog tomorrow for some amazing goodies!!

Linda xx

Lawnscaping Challenge Card #2

Hey y'all!! (I've always wanted to say that lol!)

**this is my 2nd post today, scroll down to see the first!**

Ok so this REALLY has to be quick! *yawn* :)

Here is my little card #2 for the Lawnscaping Challenge to use POLKA DOTS!!...I'm kind of in love :)

Originally I was going to do a standard card, but then once I'd stamped all the polka dots all over the yellow cardstock, I was just about to score it when I thought, "hey, this would look really cute as a postcard, with all the polka dots on one side of the image..." so that's what I did!

Here it is:

if I may say so myself, SQUEE!!

Look at this handsome fella!! Isn't he adorable?! He's just as cute blank and in the packaging as he is coloured in!

I decided to add a little bling to the flowers, his collar and cute nose. Various bling that I've had forever in my stash (sorry to be so vague! But mostly Kaisercraft.)

who's a good boy?!

So VERY easy to do. Stamped all the images onto Copic-friendly paper, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Coloured in with Copics. Masked the dog, tree and tyre image off and then using Tumbled Glass Distress ink, I did the sky, then a little Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Ink for the Grass.

I used Jenny Bowlin Lemon Drops ink (my new FAVOURITE!!! Can't wait to get more colours!) to do the polka dots onto Papertrey Ink Yellow cardstock. I love the tone on tone effect.

The "to" and "From" are both stamped using Lawn Fawn Harold's ABC's stamps with Memento Coffee Bean Ink.

I'll do my letter on the back :)

Anyhoo, I'm SO excited this worked and that the image is cute  not distressed and quiet and muted. YIPPEE!!! (maybe that's the sentiment I should add to the card?!)

Ok, so I'm dragging my tired self off to bed now. I really hope you liked this one! I did :)

Talk to you soon my loves--feel free to leave me some Comment lovin' heehee

Linda xx

Lawnscaping Challenge Card #1

Hi everyone!

This will just be a quick post tonight, because it's VERY late and I"m exhausted! The girls are both sick, so have been awake numerous times in the night--leaving mummy very bleary eyed.

Onto the craftiness!

I'm a HUGE fan of Lawn Fawn stamps (as I'm sure many of you are) so I thought I'd try out for one of their challenges. The current LawnScaping (such a cute name!) challenge, over on their gorgeous blog, is to use Polka Dots...now, polka dots I can do! I'm love polka dots.

I always have trouble making my Lawn Fawn based cards look cute, they tend to look more distressed and muted than I mean for them to, and this first card is exactly what I'm talking about!

 

I used Papertrey Ink Polka Dot Basics stamp Set (one of my first sets from PTI!), Stamped in Hawaiian Shores Ink. (also from PTI)

Obviously the fox is from the gorgeous Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest Set. Coloured in with Prismacolor Pencils and cut out with a Nestabilities circle die (which was also then embossed to give it the border). Keeping the die on, I then inked over the whole white area around Mr Fox in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

I used my NEstabilities Lacey Circles Die for the dark green cardstock (from PTI) and then I just mounted them all together! The banner and alphabet are both Lawn Fawn too :)

OK, so that's it for me--I'll have another card up here for you in just a minute! (I'm supposed to keep my two entries separate from what I can tell!)

Hope you liked my little entry :)

take care!

Linda xx

A to Z of me

Hi again!

My good friend Elizabeth from Visions of Paper did a cute little 'getting to know you' questionnaire on her blog, so I thought I'd do one quickly now, while I wait for Miss 3-year-old to eat her lunch.

A. Age: 31

B. Bed size: Queen--soon to be King I hope.

C. Chore you dislike: Dusting--I HATE dusting..


D. Dogs: 2 Toby and Molly.

E. Essential start to your day: Wish it were later or that I'd slept better :) then a cup of tea.

F. Favorite color(s): Pink or pale yellow.

G. Gold or silver: depends on what it's on. Gold rings etc but I think silver is still pretty.

H. Height: tall

I. Instruments you play(ed): Guitar, Flute, Piano, Piccolo (lessons for those) but I CAN play a Saxophone, Clarinet a little.

J. Job title: Mumma. Before that I got my Teaching degree, before that, I worked in Marketing. My degree is in Japanese studies and Marketing.

K. Kids: Isabella, 3 1/2 and Charlotte 1 1/2
.
L. Live: Perth, Western Australia

M. Mom’s name: Karen

N. Nicknames: Fishcake or Fred from mum and dad; Cutiepie from Matt.

O. Overnight hospital stays: for me: 2nights (tonsils when I was 3) and 1 night when I had my Wisdom Teeth removed; After having my kids: 3 nights and 2 nights both times. For Charlotte's surgeries, 6 nights in total

P. Pet peeves: Fools. (People who just don't THINK) & Thoughtlessness.

Q. Quote from a movie: recently Isabella has watched a LOT of Megamind, so she's been saying "You're Fun" (that's catching on lol) or "BOOM!" from that too. lol

R. Righty or lefty: Right Handed but I eat backwards (left-handed).

S. Siblings: 1 sister.

T. Time you wake up: Varies dependent on when Charlotte wakes up, usually around 6am.

U. Underwear: If at all possible! Lol

V. Vegetables you don’t like: Cauliflower and Cabbage (BLECH)

W. What makes you run late: Lately, a child-related issue (Where is my other shoe mummy?!) or if I'm going out with Matt too. I'm better if I only have to worry about myself and the girls. I forget what I have to do if he's home too lol

X. X-rays you’ve had: My teeth and my back/hips (chiropractor)

Y. Yummy food you make: most of what I make is yummy :) Omelette, Quiche, Cakes, pasta...

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Polar Bears and Penquins--these were Elizabeth's faves too. HATE the bird section (not that I hate birds).


Feel free to do this yourself! Post it on your blog and leave a comment below with a link!

Take care and I look forward to getting to know you all more!


Lxx

hey there

Hi again!

Ugh! No matter what I ATTEMPT to do on this blog, I never quite get there *sigh* oh well, it's all in the intentions huh?!

I thought I'd share a couple of layouts I've made recently and I'll do my best to follow up wtih some crafty updates in the next few days. I've been making a lot, just no time to share them with you!

So this is a layout I did with one of my favourite-of-all-time photos of Charlotte:

 Sorry about the mess you can see around this one, I  couldn't find anywhere else clean enough on my desk to take the shot! I'll try to re-shoot this layout.

I've long been a fan of Moon Ko, who makes beautiful UBER-clean layouts. Really not my style (in the i-can-do meaning), but so so lovely. And I'm so glad I tried to use her as inspiration.

This was also using a Studio Calico sketch from weeks back. I'm really happy with it.

Here's a close-up of the journalling:



I kinda love that little hand-made tag :) All papers were Studio Calico.

Now, this card was (and is) intended for my lovely friend Linda, who was ill a few weeks back. I made the card the minute I found out she was having health troubles, but it got buried under a pile of mess, good intentions and meaning-to's; SO, in order to actually force me to get my act together and SEND IT, I'm posting it here :)

 

The bunny image is from Tiffany Doodles   it's a digital shop. I've never really been "ínto" the digital style of things, but I LOVE Tiffany's work. it's really beautiful. And the best part? It ranges from sweet and life-life (like this Shy Bunny image) to cutesy and whimsical--perfect! (not to mention that the prices are AMAZING!). Please go check her shop out.

For the bunny, I printed the image onto Watercolour paper (just ran it through my normal printer) and then used Distress Inks to paint the bunny's fur. Here's a closeup:

The thing I loved with this in the end, is that you can barely see the black lines of the original image (which are already whispy and faint), so it looks like I literally painted Mr Bunny here ).

I used Antique Linen, Walnut Stain and that's about it!! (SUPER easy :))

If you have any questions/would like me to (attempt!) do a video to show you, I'd be happy to!

Here's the inside of the card. I used a Hero Arts stamp (NO idea of the name :)) sorry lol.

Ok!! SO I have kids who are causing daddy far too  much trouble to be dealt with alone right now, so I have to run!

Leave me some comment love :)

talk to you soon sweets!

it's been a while...

Hi there ho there...

So it's been a while, I know. I've been a very bad blogger lately. I've been going through a bit of a creative rut, so I spent some time away from my craft desk lately. Plus it's hard to blog some days, it feels like I'm talking to noone. But that's ok, I read a few blogs that I never comment on too---actually, I comment in my mind, but forget to actually type something lol!

Anyhow, I'm in the middle of making a quilt for Isabella--which is going REALLY well...I'll let you know as soon as it's finished, but in the meantime,

take care and thanks SO much for stopping by :) it means a lot to me.

Linda xx