Darby & Penelope

Hi there, I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. We have a long weekend here in Australia which I love. It is nice knowing that there is no saturday morning sports or going through the morning routine for school and to be able to doing things at a lazy pace.

Yesterday Michael worked so after spending most of the day cleaning I decided to sit down and make a card. It is my gorgeous friend Kirsty's daughter birthday next week so I sat down to make her a card. I looked for sketches and although there are plenty of great ones out there none of them were pulling me in so I decided to think outside the box and come up with my own. I have to say that I am quite happy with the layout of this card.

I wanted to use the Darby & Penelope stamp as I can imagine Elizabeth and Kira sitting on a fence of wall and having a good yarn like a couple of old ladies! They have known each other since they were born (Kirsty and I met through mothers group) and although they may not see each other all the time when they do it is never strained.

I am going to enter this into's this weeks challenges for:

Anya Ink - Button & Bows

All That Scraps Challenges - Buttons & Ribbons

Stamp Something - Happy something (I think the image symbolises happiness)

I have used Darby & Penelope Stamp from CC Designs, kaisercraft ribbon, lace, kaisercraft pearls, October Afternoon Paper, sprays from spotlight, button from stash and spellbinders Labels Nine.

I have a couple of hours now till we need to go out again so will see if can get a sketch challenge in.

Thanks for stopping by, until next time xoxo

A mixture of challenges

If you are from Melbourne I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather we have been having. I really thought last week that the start of winter had settled in but obviously it was just a small taster of what’s to come.

Lizzie has a choir performance later this morning so just a quick post for today.

I was picked as a Top 3 over at Anya Ink’s last challenge, which was hugely exciting for me, and as such I eagerly wanted to participate again this week (not that I ever really needed motivating to join these challenges). The current challenge over at Anya Ink is Pink & Sparkly, just my sort of thing! I had heaps of fun making this card trying to add as much bling as possible without it being too over bearing. I have also used the current challenge over at Sketch & Stash for the layout:

 

 

Here is a closer look at the image where you can hopefully see the sparkle a bit better.

I have also used sparkle by adding a few rhinestones on the card and on the ribbon I have added a sparkly Prima Dynasty flower centre, which I picked up from Quixotic Paperie a few months ago but had not managed to use

I have also used my copics for colouring, buttons I had laying around, DS Paper and cardstock from Stampin Up, Image from The Greeting Farm, metal to tie the buttons down, faux stitching, spellbinders and miscellaneous ribbons/lace.

I am also entering this card into this week’s Anyone for Anya challenge, Sweet as Sugar, which leaves a large scope for interpretation and this weeks Quixotic Challenge, heavy metal, following Elaine’s example and only using minimal metal!

Well I better be getting myself ready.

Until next time xoxo

Papertake Weekly

Robbie finally had his 6^th birthday on Tuesday and he was so excited that at 5am he was waiting for his presents! It took me back to being a little girl and remembering how long that week before your birthday is and then that sleep before is the worst constantly waking up hoping that you can see the sunlight start to come through the curtains only to be disappointed and having to try and get back to sleep. Finally when the day arrives it goes by in a flash and then the countdown begins for the next one. He had such a good day and we had a good dinner with my family. He resisted sleep as much as he could but he finally flaked it around 8:30 in the lounge room on the floor (head resting on a pillow which was on top of his new skateboard).

Today after being shopping with Robbie (birthday money to spend) and picking up Elizabeth when we came home I decided it was time to sit back and make a card. It was such a hard decision on which sketch to follow, being there are so many great ones out this week, but I finally decided on the Papertake Weekly Sketch.

 

I have had this designer paper sitting in my stash for ages and have pulled it out so many times to make a card but have never been able to make it work so have put it back. Today though I managed to use it and am happy with the result. You will have to excuse the bad lighting in the photo but we have had an overcast day up here but I knew that if I waited for a better day I might never get it posted in time as things have been busy here lately.

 

The image is a Miss Anya from The Greeting Farm, this is the first time she has been inked up and I think I got this set at least 6 months ago. Thought it was quite fitting though as we have been having rain up here today. Copics have been used for the colouring, faux stitching, lace, ribbon, hair pin, spacers and beads, greeting from Kraftin Kimmie Sentiments, and there is a bit of paper tolling on it too.

I am also entering this card into both Anya Ink and Anyone for Anya as they both call for “Anything Goes” this week.

Another clean card which is what I am enjoying at the moment. I am sure I will get back to wanting to use flowers etc again soon, at least I hope so as I have a draw full of them, LOL!

 I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week.

Until next time xoxo

Dusting off Miss Anya.....

Hello again…..I hope you are all well and if in Melbourne enjoying the sunshine today, it is so nice to see after all the overcast weather we have had this week.

Thursdays have become a bit of an indulgence day for me as I have decided to dedicate this day to NO HOUSEWORK which means that if I am home I can play with my stamps and stash. Lucky for me I was home today so I could play. I started using this weeks Papertake Weekly sketch for my card but I was not happy with how it was turning out and was getting frustrated trying to make it work so I decided to ditch it. The colours are not my normal but I have to say I really like the way it al came together.

 

So I am entering this card into this week’s Anyone for Anya (mums the word) and Anya Ink (include embossing) challenges. I have not done a card using a Greeting Farm stamp for ages so I thought it was time I dusted them off.

So what have I used, well I used copics for colouring, Anya from Miss Dressy collection, sentiments from Kraftin Kimmie, Stampin Up DS Paper, embossing folders, kaisercraft rhinestones, lace and if you look carefully you will see the buttons on Anya’s dress are tiny gems which I had in my stash.

I hope you all like. I am going to dash now and see if I can get two cards made in one day.

Until next time xoxo

Anya Ink - Sketch

I hope all the Australian mums have settled their children into school/kinder for the year and that there was not too many tears! Robbie my youngest starts school tomorrow, he is so excited that I am not sure he will sleep tonight. I am sure in a few months the situation will be completely different!

It was nice to get Elizabeth back on Monday and getting some routine back into our lives. She has settled in nicely and loves her new teacher.

I had an empty house this afternoon, which is always the perfect opportunity to get my stuff out and play! I have been a bit slack with the Anya Ink challenges lately so this was where I challenged myself today. Luckily for me (low on mojo) they had a sketch challenge this week:

 

 

 

 

 

 I really enjoyed making this card today and as a result am pleased with how it has come out. I love the paper I picked up a few weeks ago and was happy to be able to use it. Not sure if the photo shows it well enough but I also cut the image out and mounted it on the oval.

Michael is about to head off to fire brigade so I think I will go watch some more gossip girls.

Until next time xoxo

Supplies: Stamp from The Greeting Farm, paper by Fiskars, Stampin Up cardstock, watercolour pencils, lace, flowers, hand stitching and spellbinders Nestabilities.

A mixture of challenges

Arrghhhhh!!!!! I have not had a good week for stamping. It seems that everything I set out to do is just blah. It started off with trying last weeks Anya Ink challenge, a one layer card, resulting in two attempts not even remotely good enough to post  to 5 attempts of coloring an image today for a card. I have also being finding it difficult lately to make cards as when I looked back on my blog I saw that I was creating a lot of the same style card so I challenged myself to step outside the square.

 

This morning I got up and decided to clean the house and give my stamping stash a bit of a clean up (in a very vain hope it would help me) and then set out to try again!

 

I managed to pull together a card that I am reasonably happy with. It covers this weeks Anya Ink’s challenge, flowers, Cute Card Thursday, using grey and pink and this weeks Sketch Saturday:

 

 

So without further ado here is my card:

 

As I said I am not in love with it but I don’t totally hate it either, in fact it seems to be growing on me more and more.  There are four types of flowers on this card, the first being in Miss Anya’s hair, second being the flowers petals I have made, the third being on the DS Paper and the fourth is one of my buttons I have used.

 

I came across a great tutorial on how to get the “bounce” in the hair. This was my first attempt doing this and it is the thing I like most about this card! If you would like the details of the tutorial please send me an email and I will email you the link.

 

I have used Miss Anya from The Greeting Farm, Copic Markers, Spellbinders Nestabilities to make my flowers, miscellaneous buttons, Stampin Up cardstock and DS paper. I have also distressed my edges by running the scissors down the edge of my paper and applied some faux stitching.

 

I think I may go any try to make another card. I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.

 

Until next time xoxo

I am back!

So have you been wondering where I have been? I have been on a very enjoyable 2 week holiday with the family down at Lakes Entrance. We had a wonderful time at the beach and also exploring the nearby area. The caravan park we stayed in was fantastic. It had an organized activity for the kids each day (whether that be some crafts or games in the pool) and movies under the stars every 3^rd night and was only 5 minutes walk to the patrolled surf beach.

 

We had a very stressful lead up to Christmas this year with my nana being very sick and in hospital. She is now on the mend in a rehabilitation hospital and hopefully will be home in the next few weeks so our holiday was a great chance to unwind and enjoy being together.

 

I do have to say that now we are home I am glad to have my space back as we have being living in a tent! When I had my shower this evening I nearly cried!! I will bring you some photos over the next few days.

 

Well after two weeks away I keen to make a card so I headed over to Anya Ink and Anyone for Anya sites. This week over at Anya Ink we had to use black, white and one other colour. This week’s challenge for Anyone for Anya was Anything Goes, meaning could do whatever we liked, just the sort of challenge I like.   

 

Immediately when I saw Anya Ink’s challenge I knew that I wanted to use red as my third colour so off I went in search of some red patterned paper. I have now discovered that I do not have much meaning I have a great reason to head off to the scrapbooking shops!

 

After much deliberation this is what I finally came up with:

 

 

 

I am not too sure about this card must be a bit rusty after my break (at least that is the excuse I am using)! I have used stamp from The Greeting Farm, Stampin Up cardstock and DS Paper, copics for colouring and miscellaneous flowers and embellishments. 

 

I hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas and New Years with your family and loved ones and I look forward to spending more time with you over the coming year.

 

Until next time xoxo

Bright Christmas

Well I have managed to make another card in the space of 24 hours from finishing my last card. This for some reason seems to be difficult to achieve as we approach the silly season. It was however sketch week at Anyone for Anya and this weeks Anya Ink challenge is Christmas. As you know I love my sketch challenges and as need to get my butt moving with making Christmas cards these were good excuses to create.

 

I have gone out of my comfort zone for this card.

 

 

It is very bright for a Christmas card but I decided that I wanted to do something different for a change and challenge myself with the colours. I did enjoy making this card and am reasonably happy with the result.

 

The hat I got from Deb's store, she had it made up so that we could use our favorite stamps for Christmas cards too. I loved the idea of that. I have added glitter to the white parts of the hat and also to the presents but as always the camera does not show this. The patterned paper is from kaisercraft, cardstock Stampin up, certainly celery, real red and pink pirouette, ribbon from Stampin Up and bling from kaisercraft. I have coloured the image using my trusty copics, have I mentioned lately how much I love them!!!!

 

Well it is Kirsty’s birthday tomorrow so tonight we are off to celebrate.

I hope to be back soon with the goodie bags I am making for the kids teachers.

 

Until next time xoxo

Three in one...

Wow what a busy few days I have had. I cant believe it has been 4 days since my last post. My hubby has just finished up a job last Thursday and is on leave for a week, needless to say why I have had a lack of time to make cards! We have however enjoyed some much needed time as a family and look forward to tomorrow when we go away for a few days.

On Thursday night we all went to Michael’s new job, head chef at a gorgeous restaurant called Home Dining in Hawthorn, and had a beautiful dinner and a great chat with his new boss. The kids, who were worded up before we left, behaved very well and the night was good fun.

On Friday we just did some bits and pieces before Michael headed off for a one night induction at his new job and I went out to dinner with Kirsty and Dee. We had such a great time chatting away and enjoying each others company.

Yesterday we went to the park for picnic with the kids and our some of our extended family. The kids had a ball riding their bikes around, something they can not do at home, and just playing around. Last year we used to do this just about every weekend but when Michael started head cheffing at the Cuckoo he lost the weekends and as such picnics went to the wayside. His new job though gives him Sundays off with the family, just in time for picnic weather, and also Saturday mornings which means he will be able to watch the kids at their sports.

So today is a home day before we head off tomorrow and as such I have managed to get a card in. As I know I will be tight on time this week for playing along with challenges I have done three in one. I missed last weeks sketch challenge over at Anyone for Anya and as they only have it once a month I really wanted to do this one.

I have used the sketch together with their challenge for this week which is using the colours of your national flag or colours that represent your country. I have then met this weeks challenge over at Anya Ink by incorporating the technique Paper Tole.

 

 

 

 

So there you have it. The colours were difficult for me to use as they are very strong colours but I think I have managed to pull it off. As I live in the “garden state” I wanted to incorporate a flower.

 

You can see from the close ups that I have done a few layers for my “Paper Tole” the highest layer being half the skirt, the tee shirt and sunglasses. What great fun it was to pull all these challenges together in one card.

 

Down to the supplies the stamp is from the Rain Snow Shine Miss Anya collection which you can currently get on special from Die Cuts R Us, blue card stock was just some scrap I had laying around the rest is Real Red and Whisper White from Stampin Up, flowers and rhinestones from Kaisercraft, miscellaneous ribbon and copics for colouring. Techniques I have used include paper piercing, faux stitching, paper tole, scalloping.

I hope you all have a good few days and I will be hopefully back later this week with some more cards.

 

 

Until next time xoxo

Anya Ink Challenge #4 & Mojo Monday 110

Hello everyone and welcome back if you are a regular reader and if you are a first time visitor then welcome to my blog.

 

Today the kids had their first dentist visit. I was not sure what to expect from the kids but they were very brave and well behaved. After the dental visit Elizabeth went to school and Robbie went to a friends house for a play so I had some time to play.

 

There are some many wonderful challenges this week that I did not know where to start. I ended up going with the Anya Ink challenge (as this is one of my fav challenge blogs) and incorporated it with this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch, as I loved the sketch as soon as I saw it. This is my third week of participating with the Anya Ink Blog. I love the fact that this blog is Australian it feels good to be part of something from here. The ladies over at Anya Ink have only just started this blog and will be choosing their third DT member from the entrants over the last month. I hope that I have made a good enough impression as it would be a dream to be part of something so wonderful.

 

This week the challenge was to use any number of circles, two ribbons and staples. So I set off this afternoon with this in mind and this is what I have come up with:

 

 

 

I love this Edward stamp from the Wild Sprouts collection but for some reason I keep sidetracking it when it comes time to make a card.  I have stapled the image circle to the scallop circle, requirement 1 & 2 checked off, and used a black and red ribbon together, last requirement checked off. Phew! The cardstock is real red, old olive, basic black from Stampin Up. I have used my copics for colouring the image and used my Uni-ball pens for stitching oh and for the outside stitching on the red cardstock I have also used my paper piercer. I also distressed all the edges of coloured cardstock. I really like the way this card has come out. As I have used contrasting colours and different directions I wanted to keep it simple and not over embellish the card.

 

So there it is my last chance too impress, keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

I also made some more cards last night which I will be back to show you soon.

 

Until next time xoxo

Anya Ink Challenge #3

Michael got some free tickets for us to go see the Silvers Circus from work so off we went last night. It was a great night and there were some incredible tricks and acts too. The ending is just amazing with a huge steel ball that motorcycles ride around. The kids had an absolute ball. Silvers Circus is fairly expensive to go too so previously I had not really wanted to but after seeing it last night I can say that it if I had of paid I would have felt satisfied and that it was money well spent. Be sure to check them out if you live in Melbourne and take the kids you will not be disappointed.

 

So needless to say it was a rather late night for the kids and we have all been a bit sluggish this morning. Thankfully though I made a card yesterday afternoon for this weeks Anya Ink challenge. This weeks requirement was hand stitching, real or faux. Now as I don’t really like sewing for real I went for the faux option! I have gone out of my comfort zone this week and used a boy stamp, not something I do too often as I have to admit I just find it too hard to come up with a design/layout for them. As the sun was shining yesterday and it was feeling a bit summery I decided to use my “surfer Ian” stamp. I also wanted to use bright colours so I dug deep into my paper collection and came out with Taken by Teal and Summer Sun from Stampin Up.

 

 

 

 

The card is pretty basic but I thought as the colours were so bright that it did not really call for much else. I have used my copics for colouring Ian and I have cut him out and stuck him on top of the waves to make it look like he is “riding a wave”. I have also distressed all the edges of the card and put some twine on to give it a bit of a rustic feel.

 

I am off with my mum soon to go for a walk around Lilydale Lake and for Robbie to have a play. I have to say that since I have finished working I am loving my Fridays and spending some time with mum. I am very lucky that my mum and dad live just around the corner from me so I can always drop in when I want, they are a great support to me as my husband works weekends so they help out a lot with the kids. They are the best parents one could ask for and I would be lost without them. So to my Mummy and Daddy if you are reading this mwah I love you!

 

Until next time xoxo

Anya Ink: Challenge #2

Well I have certainly neglected my page over the last week. Last time I left you I was excited to be going off to Kirsty’s to catch up with her and Dee to make some cards which I would be able to show you. Well lets just say that we had very good intentions, but after some in depth conversations about Twilight, looking at pictures of Robert Pattinson and some talking we only managed to color one image.

 

The week as flown by and I have only just managed this afternoon to sit down and make a card.

 

When I was blog surfing last week I came across a new Aussie blog called Anya Ink. As you know I love the stamps from The Greeting Farm and of course being an Aussie myself felt compelled to participate in the challenge and support the new site.

 

I had great intentions of joining in last weeks challenge but I only managed to get the image stamped off. This weeks challenge is to use DS Paper somewhere on the card. As this is something that I have been trying to do a lot of lately I enjoyed this challenge.

 

The DS Paper is some that I had laying around and thought would go well with the image. The rest of the cardstock is Stampin Up of course.

 

The card is actually a lot softer in life but photography does not appear to be my forte!  If anyone can give me some tips it would be very much appreciated. The hair band also sparkles but once again the photo does not show this.  You may notice that I cut out the shopping bags and 3D them to the card. Here is a closer look.

 

 

I am reasonably happy with this card, not my normal colours or paper but I enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone.

 

I will leave you here for now, I have 3 more sketch challenges that I really want to do as I like the look of them.

 

Hopefully I will be back very soon to show you more.

 

Until next time xoxo