Card - thinking of you

A super quick card today to share:

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: various

Stamp: Time For Tea (digi)

Colouring medium: copics and twinkling H2Os

Other: stickers

Card challenge:

Time For Tea: April challenge

Thanks for visiting!

Layout - it wasn't me!

Happy Wednesday! A short week this week with Easter and Anzac Day falling on consecutive weekends! Yay! 

Today I have a layout to share that has been sitting on. My desk since Monday morning. It's based on a sketch over at Sketch~N~Scrap this month:

I flipped it on its side and skewed that middle panel a little.

I've been holding onto these photos for awhile now, and these fun colours were just perfect for my cheeky boy. Grubby face, usually with various blocks and treasure tucked into his onsie, getting into as much mischief as possible. It was about this age that he took to 'posting' things - usually into the grill on the front of his father's car! I don't know how many pegs, cards, cars and crayons I fished out from under the bonnet! In this particular photo he is once again trying to play with an old game system of his dad's - despite being told not to touch it! That's one of the issues in living in a tiny unit - only so much you can fit in the tops of the cupboards! 

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: various from stash

Stamp set: Simply Stars (SU!)

Ink: Pear Pizazz (SU!)

Paint: green, blue, orange

Other: black pen, chipboard arrows and stars, chipboard title, button with brad (Queen & Co), glossy glue

Challenge:

Sketch~N~Scrap: sketch April 15 (#55)

Thanks for visiting!!

GDT - Stick It Down

I literally jumped up and down with excitement at being asked to be a guest designer for Stick It Down challenges this week.  Here's the current sketch:

Fantastic isn't it??? Then of course I thought - oh my goodness, 9 photos?!?!?! Straight away I dug out the photos of The Boy's Cub investiture and this is what I came up with:

It does irk me that this particular night they did paper mâché first!!! I definitely would have taken a spare shirt if I'd known... Oh well! It all washed out, and after all - isn't that what Scouts all about, getting stuck into new things and having a great time?

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: Crumb Cake and various off cuts (SU!), Kaisercraft paper

Ink: Walnut Stain (Tim Holtz), Chocolate Chip Stampin Write Marker (SU!)

Other: chipboard letters, crackle accents (Tim Holtz), rub ons (Kaszazz), circle dies, Bitty Banners framelits (SU!), metal bead letters and faux leather band

Thanks Darcy and team for having me!

GDT - A Random Fan

I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to be a guest designer for the current A Random Fan sketch challenge and couldn't wait to share my creation with you. First up, here's the sketch:

Now I print out sketches, and I swivelled this one this way and that, and finally it occurred to me - hello! A card that opens out from the centre! It still didn't quite work for me so I used the image mounted onto circles as a catch. 

 

See what I mean? 

Thanks Sherri for having me!

Card recipe:

Card stock/paper: Doodlebug, SU!

Stamps: Jack's Plane (A Random Fan), sentiment (front) (SU!), sentiment (inside) (Kaszazz)

Colouring medium: copics

Inks: Tempting Turquoise (SU!)

Other: ribbon, chipboard heart (coloured with Chocolate Chip ink (SU!), circle dies, Bitty Banner dies (SU!)

Layout - true love

The second layout for today is based on the April 15 sketch at Stuck?! Sketches. Here's the sketch:

And here's the layout:

This is the Boy only a few weeks old, before he left hospital (at 6 weeks). See how tiny he was? Birth weight was 1.36kg. I think that is 3pd in the old measurement? Anyway, dolly size! See his tiny fingers curled around his daddy's fingers, today we marvelled at how his hand scan comfortably hold his daddy's hand. That is my favourite part of scrapping - sharing the memories with The Boy and The Man as I work :)

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: Crumb Cake (SU!), off cuts (Kaisercraft & SU!)

Stamp set: Gorgeous Grunge (SU!)

Ink: White craft, Soft Suede (SU!)

Other: rub ons, flowers, silver heart brads, washi tape, border die (Magnolia Doohickeys), oh baby sticky embellishment

Challenges:

Stuck?! Sketches: April 15

Thanks for visiting!!

Layout - adore you

I've got two layouts to share tonight, so both posts will be short and sweet since it's late and I was ready for bed ages ago... Got caught up in the movie The Sapphires - and now I just want to sing '60s soul!!! Might have to trawl my CD collection tomorrow for a bit of karaoke this week... Well, car-awoke anyway ;) I do like me some singing in the car!

Anyway, back to the point. A layout based on the latest sketch at Stick It Down. Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

All inked up!! I used texture paste and a homemade stencil to do the first layer of texture, the smeared blue, brown and green acrylic paint over the paper.  I also used an embossing folder to impress a faint extra texture onto the stencilled hexagons. Discreet but just an addicted extra!

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Bazzill, Echo Park, off cuts 

Paint: blue, green, brown

Other; texture paint, hexagon punch, cereal box, hexagon embossing folder, washi tape, curl clips, stickers (Echo Park), pearls, sun charm

Challenges:

Stick It Down: sketch 15 April

And before I go, here's an engagement card I made recently for a very lovely lady and her new fiancé :)

Thanks for visiting!

Card - love

Today was the most glorious autumn day - you'd never think that only 3 hours away towns are flooded and an island off the coast of a town only 4 hours away in the other direction is in shambles thanks to Cyclone Ita last weekend. But here, it was gorgeous sunny weather, with a cool breeze. Such a shame to be working hard inside my office all day!

Tonight I finally decided to bite the bullet and. Make a pink card for the current challenge at Mo's DP blog which is Perfectly Pinkalicious with a Mo image.  I always struggle with pink and flowers and pink and busy and pink (!!!) - must be from living so long in a home dominated by muddy foot and paw prints, fur, laundry and lego! Surely! I swear I thought I was a girly girl but I definitely feel much more comfortable with splatters, distressing, paint, ink and masculine tones!  One of the criteria for the Sketch N Stash challenge is to use "new or neglected" stash items, and for me I have used flowers (severely neglected!) and the spring border die that I had forgotten I had, not sure if I'd ever used it before now! Potentially purchased c.2011 so we will also call it a neglected item! :)

I've tried to give a bit of a 3d effect with the grass that this little one is playing in.

Card recipe:

Card stock/paper: assorted unknown off cuts (white, pink, green, floral)

Stamp: Birthday Fairy Lee (Mo's Digital Pencil)

Dies: circles (SU!), spring border (Memory Box)

Embossing folder: honeycomb (SU!)

Colouring medium: copics, twinkling H2Os, stickles

Other: stickers (Papercraft Australia), old olive ribbon (SU!), pearls, flowers (Prima)

Challenges:

Mo's DP challenges: perfectly Pinkalicious

Sweet stamps: anything goes + embossing (dry or heat)

Sketch & stash: #137 sketch

Thanks for visiting!

Layout - daddy's boy

I hope your week has started with a smile :)

Here's my latest layout entitled Daddy's Boy. My boys are two peas in a pod, and everyday The Boy becomes more and more like his dad.  This photo is particularly joyful for me, taken at the local carols only a couple of weeks after The Boy received hearing aids - he could hear the music and we had a great time singing along as the words came up on the screen. To this day I still lean down to sing close to his ear so that he can learn the melody, particularly if it's noisy or lots of voices, like carols or hymns.

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: a mixture from Kaisercraft, DCWV, SU!, Echo Park and unknown scraps

Other: Basic Black Stampin' Write marker, wooden hot air balloons (Kaisercraft), buttons, chipboard title, white, blue, orange and brown acrylic paint, pals sticker, Kaisercraft and Kaszazz rub ons

Dies: circles, Adorning Accents (both SU!)

Challenges:

Page maps: My Creative Sketches April sketch

Thanks for visiting!

Card - sweet baby

I had a great time putting this card together, so very simple but I am just loving getting back into my copics.  My birthday is next month and I am coaxing my hubby into some more *wink*.  Luckily I have a close friend who will help him out with sourcing them and selecting colours.  My swatch book is very conveniently left on the bench!

Onto the current card.  Not sure if you can see the tag and sentiment are up on dimensional tape for a bit of somethin' somethin' :) I used a tutorial from the very talented Laura shared on the A Random Fan challenge blog earlier this month to colour this little chick's hair. 

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: DSP paper stack (subtles I think), coordinating green and yellow, white cardstock (SU!)

Stamps: Baby on Board (A Random Fan), Itty Bitty Banners (SU!)

Inks: Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Write marker, ret.)

Dies/punches: Bitty Banners, Boho Blossoms (SU!) 

Colouring medium: Copics

Other: yellow rhinestones

Challenges:

Clear It Out: anything goes + stitching (real or faux)

A Random Fan: spring colours

Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #131

Thanks for visiting! Time for a scrap page to round out the weekend methinks!

Card - thank you

* Cyclone Ita has passed us by, and heading south - thanks to those who left messages :) *

When I saw that the challenge over at Less is More was to do shadow stamping, I must confess I had to double check what it meant  - I made a quick card using stamping off technique, but it didn't reeeealllyyyy fit the brief, so I will save it for another day!  Go check out some of those entries, they are FABULOUS!

I originally didn't sponge this card, but I think it kind of needed it.  Originally (and you can still see it faintly) I used the Simply Scored board to score two parallel lines down the long edges of my leaf panel, but the sponging really helped to define it.  And helped to cover up some of those edges that didn't quite stamp properly over the mask!

 

This overcast weather is doing nothing for my photographic abilities, which are mediocre at best on a good day!  Sorry about the dark image!

Card recipe: 

Cardstock/paper: Whisper White (SU!)

Stamp sets: Warm Regards (ret.), Secret Garden (both SU!)

Inks: Soft Suede, Wild Wasabe, Marina Mist

Other: Sponge, masks (post-its), Simply Scored

Challenges:

Less is More: #167 1 layer + shadow stamping

Thanks for visiting!

 

Layout - glad you were there

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend! We are currently waiting for tropical cyclone Ita to pass over, she's much weaker than when she slammed into the Coast North of us last night, and now skirting down the tropical coast. By tomorrow morning it will all be over and the clean up will begin.  Nothing to report for our town yet, just heavy rain for the past 18 hours or so, but not inclined to flood - the dam is filling though which Is great! Hopefully some farmers are getting some rain too!

Here's a layout I've just completed to share. I fell pregnant with The Boy in my very last semester at uni and I ended up completing the last three subjects by correspondence when he was a year old, graduating just after he turned two.  By then we were over the initial new parents stresses, including everything that goes with premature babies.  Even though I got the order a bit wrong in my original life plan, I am so grateful for all of it and that he was there to celebrate with me.

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: Kaisercraft English Rose, SU!, Bazzill, page from an old novel (the book is being repurposed into an album by a friend so I snagged a few pages)

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar (SU!)

Dies: Alphabet (Sizzix), border (Magnolia doohickeys), leaves (Spellbinders)

Other: flowers, pearls, rhinestones, Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon (SU!), distresser

Challenges:

Scrapbook Boutique: photo inspiration

Once Upon A Sketch: sketch (+ theme: event that changed my life + journaling requirement, see hidden tag)

Thanks for visiting!

Card - thanks

Happy Thursday!

We are battening down the hatches for Cyclone Ita to hit the north Queensland coast tomorrow.  As true blue north Queenslanders, we are alert but not alarmed!  But it does mean a busy afternoon ahead securing things in our yards and taping windows.

 But before all that happens, I wanted to share my most recent card:

 

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery (ret.) (SU!)

Stamp sets: French Foliage (ret.), Kindness Matters (ret.), Gorgeous Grunge (all SU!)

Inks: Soft Suede, Blushing Bride, Certainly Celery

Other: corner rounder

Challenge:

CAS(E) this sketch: Sketch #71

 

See you on the other side!

Card - to the best friend I've ever had

Happy Wednesday!  Today I have a quick card I whipped up overnight starring one of the cutest digis I own - Buds by Mo's Digital Pencil. I've had this digi for about two years I think - one of the first ones I ever bought.  We didn't have dogs then (we now have two beautiful fur-babies) and The Boy just adores his fur-siblings and they adore him... I'm sure if Boy Dog was big enough, I'd often find them exactly in this position!!!

Card recipe:
Cardstock/paper: Kaisercraft paper pad (I'll have to double check the collection's name!), Whisper White, other
Stamp: Buds (Mo's Digital Pencil), Label Love (SU!)
Ink: Not Quite Navy (SU!)
Other: Circle dies, label punch (both from SU!)
Colouring medium: Copics

Challenges:

Bella & Bronte's Clubhouse: April showcase
Just Add Ink: Just add layers
Stick It Down: Sketch (8 April)



An update on the cyclone approaching Queensland - it is still forecasted to track north of us, and hit the sparsely populated areas on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula.  The cyclone watch area currently stops at Port Douglas - about 2 hours from here, but if it swings south we are in for a VERY windy weekend!

Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting!!

Card - smile

Happy Tuesday! I hope you have managed to do something creative today!  I have been very busy putting the finishing touches on a layout that I will be able to share in a few weeks, but quickly stamped out this card just now for the Less Is More challenge - which this week is A Touch of Turquoise.

This was literally a 2 minute card, so if you are looking for something quick and easy, you can't go past this one!

Card recipe:

All products are from SU!

Card stock/paper: Whisper White

Stamp sets: Gorgeous Grunge, Happy Day, Papillion Potpourri

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey

Other: elegant butterfly punch

Challenge:

Less is More: #166 A Touch of Turquoise

Us north Queenslanders are watching a rather large cyclone heading towards the coast just north of us, it's a very normal part of living in the tropics! So I'm going to try and knock over a few challenges over the next few days in case we lose power for a day or two.  So stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting!

Layout - love your smile

The Boy struggled through his prep year at school.  It took 6 months to finally have that diagnosis of hearing loss, and then another 2-3 months to be fitted with his first set of hearing aids. I cried when they told me he had such significant loss, not because I was sad, or scared - all that would come later. No, those first tears were of relief that we finally had an answer, finally something we could work towards, understand, and act on. 

The Boy struggled that year because without that diagnosis we couldn't access extra help for him at school, and he was falling further and taller behind at school. Once we had those magic words, things were put in motion for speech therapy, extra teacher aide hours, access to a Students With Disabilities teacher for an hour or two a week. I'm happy to report that now, a quarter of the way through year three, he has caught up in so many ways, and is actually reading and spelling above the average. He has a keen interest in science, good at maths, loves cooking, and adores anything to do with dogs. His ear team is ever expanding - we don't know where we would be without his audiology, speech pathology, ENT and education people!!

So today's layout celebrates that second big step - after diagnosis, the first set of hearing aids. Just over a year later he would be fitted with a Cochlear Implant for his left ear, but those first hearing aids made such a change to his life. His access to sound was switched on for the first time since he'd started losing his hearing, and it was exciting.

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings collection, Whisper a White (SU!)

Stamp: journaling tag (Kaisercraft)

Ink: Walnut Stain (Ranger Inc)

Other: paperclip (SU!), brad (SU!), chipboard border and label border (Papermania), cream paint, charm, pearls (Kaisercraft), rub on ("your"), alphabet dies (Pep Squad, sizzix)

Challenges:

Scrap our stash: #13 spring colours, paperclip, journal card, 3d embellishments

Sketch'n'Stamp: sketch #54

Layout - can he fix it?

The Boy loves to do things just like his dad.  Or his mum, as the occasion fits.  He was very excited to receive real tools for Christmas one year, and very busily nailed random bits of wood together for hours on end. 

 

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Crumb cake, Whisper White (SU!), Bazzill, This is Me DSP (SU!)

Stamps: Kaisercraft

Ink: Walnut Stain (Ranger Inc)

Big Shot dies: letter dies (Sizzix), envelope liners (SU!), circle collection

Other: bracket, brads, oval (K I Memories), bracket (Scrap Works), letter stickers (Echo Park), corner rounder

 

Challenges:

Stuck?! sketches - April 1 sketch

 

Thanks for visiting!

Card - party

When I was choosing my stamps from A Random Ran, Party Animal was the first stamp on my "definite" list!!!  Isn't this little guy just too cute!?

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Bazzill, DSP (Kaszazz), Whisper White (SU!)

Stamp: Party Animal (A Random Fan)

Other: Circle framelits (SU!), chipboard stars, rick rack, blue, green and brown paint, thickers

Challenges:

Cute Card Thursday: #315 All Boy

Paper Take Weekly: Anything goes

A Random Fan: Sketch #2

 

 

Thanks for visiting!

Card - pirate birthday

Ahoy there! 

It's a wet day here, and I would much rather be at home playing with my stamps... 

Today I'm bringing you two cards made with fabulous digistamps from A Random Fan - which I was lucky enough to win from the Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge a week or two ago.  This one uses a fun stamp called "Pirate Adventure" and comes with and without the parrot.  The sentiment is one I typed myself before printing out the digi.

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Whisper White card, Real Red card, subtles DSP (all SU!) 

Stamp: Pirate Adventure (A Random Fan)

Colouring medium: Copics

Sentiment: my own

Other: chipboard star (Papermania), yellow paint

Challenges:

A Random Fan: #5: Planes, trains & automobiles

Thanks for visiting! I'll pop the other card up shortly!

Card - happy birthday

Scooting in at the last minute with an entry for two challenges - one closes in 44 minutes so hopefully the blogger fates are kind tonight!

Card recipe:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Pacific Point, Calypso Coral

Ink: Basic Grey, Pacific Point, Calypso Coral

Stamps: By The Tide, Gorgeous Grunge, Itty Bitty Banners

Other: Chalk Talk framelits, dots embossing folder, Itty Bitty Banners framelits, Calypso Coral bakers twine

Challenges:

Just Add Ink: colour combo #208 Smoky Slate, Pacific Point, Calypso Coral

Paper Craft Crew: sketch #87

Thanks for visiting!

Layout - he shall not grow old

I am a stories person.  Maybe that's why I've always been an avid reader.  Maybe that's why I retrained as a librarian after I had The Boy.  Maybe that's why I love family history.  I love telling stories, I love hearing stories, I love dreaming up stories.

I am collating family history stories for The Boy, so that one day he will appreciate all the events and emotions that shaped his world, our world and where he comes from.  I think it is so important - there are not many things that make me sadder than old photos that no one remembers or can identify the people in it.  I am very fortunate that my mum is faithfully digitising and labelling all the old photos she can get her hands on, and I am slowly scrapping them into an album.  I often journal on the back of my layouts - there's just no room sometimes, and other times I find out information after the layout is completed.  For the layout I'm about to share, I have written a very small amount of information straight on the layout, but will continue Thomas' story on the back, including the story his wife and how his loss impacted on her.

So here is my gg-grandfather, killed in action at the Battle of the Somme during the first day of fighting.  Nearly his whole battalion were wiped out on that day - you can see how I've marked the date in the second photo below:

Layout recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Merci, Echo Park, Bazzill, Whisper White (SU!), Kaszazz

Stamps: dots, postcard (small), postmark (all Kaszazz), Simply Sketched, Gorgeous Grunge (both SU!)

Inks: Distress inks (Walnut Stain, Aged Mahogany, Fired Brick)

Other: alphabet dies, tin hat from an Anzac pin purchased from the RSL a few years ago

Challenges:

Scrap the boys: Use a flower in a boy's layout

Stick it down: sketch challenge (below) 

Thanks for visiting! 

Card - happily ever after

Happy Wednesday!  Has this week dragged for you?  I have a tired, cranky, getting-sick little man at the moment, who is flexing his defiance muscles in earnest this week.  Argh!  Lucky it is the last week of term and he can have a bit of a break from everything for a couple of weeks.

Today I have a couple of projects, which I will upload over the course of the next hour or so.  The first card is the first I have made with this image from Mo Digital Pencil's Bride and Groom (dancing) digi-stamp.  I've had it for ages, but have just never gotten around to using it (at least as far as I can remember!).  I haven't been to any weddings so had no need for cards... I have two lovely friends recently engaged to two wonderful fellas so this one definitely won't go astray!

 

Card recipe:

Cardstock/paper: Whisper White (SU!), grey grid (Kaisercraft), pink words is from freebie paper from a magazine that I've had in my stash for 2 years+!

Stamps: Bride and Groom (dancing) (Mo's Digital Pencil)

Colouring medium: copics

Other: Finishing Touches die (SU!), sentiment rub on

Challenges:

Loves Rubber Stamps - #97 anything goes

Addicted to Stamps & More - #89 CAS

Mo's Digital Challenge - #226 "K is for Kiss" - I'm sure this couple is about to Kiss - otherwise maybe their names are Kevin and Kirsten? Yes, I am just that cheeky!!