Hey there!

I hope you all had a great weekend! We certainly did

I managed to spend some quality one on one time with Tiarne, doing what girls love best…..SHOPPING on Saturday afternoon. It was great fun. Amazing how they hit 9 and all of a sudden have an eye for fashion! Tiarne talked me out of buying the red jacket and into get the beige one instead! I can see more of this on the horizon….LOL

Then Sunday we had the baptism of my brand new Neice Anya. She was born 8 weeks prem, and so it is just wonderful to see her out of hospital and home at last. I really feel for my sister in law Ingrid though, having to get up every 3 hours to feed…..I don’t miss that! Hopefully Anya will keep growing so well, and I am sure within a year or two we will never remember how small she was!

In amongst all that, I managed only one card, but hey at least I did get to stamp!

I worked with Taylor’s Friday Cupcake challenge, although I definitely omitted the cupcake this week around.

Here is the sketch to work with:

This is the card I made with the sketch:

Okay so I know some of you having seen this big flower are probably wondering if this is going to replace BOUF……..well no it isn’t. I think BOUF will just have to remain as BOUF, but I do have something big and ugly that I will be working with shortly so you will have to stay tuned for that one! LOL!

This beautiful flower is from the very new stamp set called Fifth avenue floral…….which i just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! I can’t enough of it at the moment! OH and the matching paper is devine as well!

Here I have used Baja breeze and Pink pirouette cardstock with watercolour paper from Stampin’Up. I then layered the base with the new DSP from the Urban garden pack. I stamped up the rose with Stazon and watercoloured it with my aquapainter and ink pads. Lastly I have added the greeting which is from the hostess stamp set called Best yet mounted onto punched out circles. I think it turned out quite pretty.

This card is going to my friend and client Una, who just celebrated her 50th birthday, not that you would be able to tell by the look of her! She looks amazing! Anyway hopefully she has lovely celebrations! 

In between all the fun holiday activities with the kids, I have done a little bit of stamping. I managed to put together two cards, which, in my opinion are very simple. Sometimes simple is really good, but I always feel like they are a bit stingy, when I do simple cards!

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes when I view other peoples cards, that are very minimalistic, I LOVE them, but when i create like that, I keep wanting to add more. Sometimes more is less, and that is something I need to work on.

I had a little play with the new stamp set called Thoughts and Prayers. I LOVE this set, and can see it has so much potential too!

Here I have used Chocolate chip, Really rust, adn Very vanilla cardstock with some Baja blue dsp. I inked up the tree with my Stampin’write markers, to get the different coloured leaves, and then I popped the paper back onto the Sanded background stamp that I used on the Chocolate base card. Next I mounted it onto rust cardstock which I have distressed with my cutter kit. Lastly I have added the wide chocolate grosgrain ribbon, and the greeting which is a new hostess stamp set called, Best yet, mounted onto some circles. Oh and I did a little paper piercing…….can I make a card without it? LOL!

Next I had a little play with this weeks Mojo Monday sketch…..very simple, as you will see by my creation.

Here is the sketch:

my simple creation:

Birdies are really big at the moment! I just wanted this to be super simple, so have stamped up the little bird from the Best wishes and More stamp set from Stampin’Up. I have used Chocolate chip and Regal rose cardstock, with some spotty paper from the Sweet Always DSP paper pack. Lastly I added some paper piercing and the Regal rose grosgrain ribbon. I just kept wanting to add more to this, but had to really restrain myself!!!

Last night Rod and I took the kids into the city because they do late night shoppin on Friday evenings. Getting Rod to shop with me is like a once in 3 year event…….SO it was a pretty big thing for us to all be going together! Just to add some fun we decided to take the train in. I wasn’t too keen on the idea, since it was a Friday night and there are lots of hooligans around, but man there wasn’t a thing to worry about Must be the mother in me….LOL!

Just before we left, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a wee picture of the kids dressed up and ready to go……..

aren’t they adorable……..

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Hello everyone……*yawn* - Yep feeling a tad tired today. I was up before 5am this morning, and at the airport bright and early to pick up my brother Bryn as he flewn in from New York. Oh the fun he had visiting his girlfriend Kate in Maryland! It sounded just wonderful, but of course it is nice to have him home again in one piece. We manged to go out for a lovely brekkie together which was rather special…….any kid free meal it a treat now and then right? LOL!

I had a quick go at the Weekend sketch challenge, and the host for it this week was Laurie. Laurie is a most amazing stamper, and I enjoyed playing along.

Here is the sketch:

And my creation:

I got to play with the new Sweet Always paper……YAY! I LOVE this colour combo and have been using it for some time already, but I just know i will probably be doing it to death with this new paper! So if I do get a little out of hand, please be sure to let me know you are SICK TO DEATH of that colour combo……K?

Right, here on this card I have used Chocolate chip cardstock for the base, then used different pieces of the Sweet always DSP. The floral stamp is from the Playful petals stamp set, which I stamped up 3 times, coloured and then layered on top of each other. I placed a pink brad in the centre and dressed it up with some dazzling diamonds glitter. Lastlly I added the other two pink brads mounted onto some chocolate chip cardstock.

Just a quick one for ya!

Talk soon, and thanks for looking and leaving me such wonderful encouraging comments! You guys are the best!

 I just LOVE school holidays! Don’t you? It is just wonderful to take the day a little easier, and not to be watching the clock constantly, so you don’t forget to pick the kids up from school etc…… We have had fun so far, which is great, and I am really looking forward to the next 2 weeks of chilling with the kids.

The other great thing, is that I have managed to stamp a little too. I have to say I am a little overwhelmed with all my new goodies, and have found myself fumbling around, not knowing where to start with all it’s lusciousness!

To make it easier, I thought I would do last weeks challenges over on Splitcoast stampers, so I had a bit of direction on what to make etc….

So on Monday it is a “Try a new technique” challenge, and this past week, it was to make a flower pot card. I have never seen one of these before, but it was rather fun, and certainly makes for one of those “different” cards that you like to do now and then for a special occasion.

I thought my first creation I show you from the new catty should be the new In colours!!! I have stamped up the flowers with all the new Incolours - Riding hood red, Baja blue, Pacific point, Tangerine tango, Pink pirouette, Kiwi kiss ( don’t you just love those names!) I have then created the flower pot, and stamped the outside with the Sanded background stamp, and topped it off with some new Pacific point strip ribbon.

You attached the flowers and leaves to a bookmark shape of cardstock, and that is what slips into the flower pot, with the flowers popping up at the top……. Cute hey!

Next I worked on the colour challenge, which was Close to cocoa, So saffron, and Bashful blue. I really didn’t know where to begin with this one, but just knew I wanted to ink up my Owl together now stamp set.

 As you can see I have used the colour challenge colours, and some whisper white cardstock. I stamped my little owl with Chocolate chip ink, and coloured him in, then cut him out and mounted him onto the hanging branch. The greeting is from the same stamp set, which I have layered up with my scallop and circle punches.  Lastly I added the paper piercing, chocolate ribbon, and the Bashful blue brads in a row.

And last of all I had a play with the Sketch challenge from last week as well.

Here is the sketch:

And my stamped creation:

Another stamp set I have been dying to play with is this one called Friends 24/7. It is rustic and it is just beautiful! I have used Not quite navy for the card base, and added a wide strip of the Bella Bleau DSP, which of course is new, and beautiful! I scallop edged one side. I have then used Kraft cardstock for the other square which I stamped with the Damask stamp with Versamark. Lastly I stamped up the wee gorgeous bird with Chocolate ink, and added some spritz with my spritzer, and some watercolouring for effect. I have then distressed the edges for a more rustic feel. Lastly I added the antique brass brads, and the Kraft taffeta ribbon, with a tag tied to it with twine. The greeting is from the same stamp set.

I have a couple more things to show you too, but I am about to head off for a quick nanna nap because I have had two VERY LATE nights, and I want to be nice a cheery for my downline that are coming over tonight!

Talk soon!

Hey there,

Yes I have stamped…….YAY at last I managed to get some ink on my brand new rubbah! I wanted to photograph them yesterday, but we had a nasty storm here yesterday and it was so clouded over that there wasn’t enough natural light to do the photos justice. So I will have to do it today.

But on another note, the other day I mentioned some exciting news that I wanted to share with you.

That news is that I was Splitcoast Guest Tutorialist! I was very suprised to be asked to write a tutorial on my Post it note holders, that I did as a Make it Monday #15 but of course felt very houred as well!

I of course made up a new one, which was with the delicious Raspberry tart DSP, the new Playful petals stamp set, and some Filigree brads.

Here is the final product for you to see:

You can view the tutorial here over at Splitcoast stampers. Alternately you can view it via the Make it Monday tutorial Post it note holder, which is on my sidebar.

Thanks to Beate, for asking me to do the tutorial, and I hope you have all enjoyed it