I think my MOJO is slowly creeping back

I was on such a good roll the other week with my cards making lots and really enjoying them then all the sudden my mojo disappeared and I came to a complete stop! I LOVE making cards but for some reason the last week I have had no desire to go make cards, now whether this was because I was not feeling too great over the week, had some very distressing news about my Oma and also was out of sorts with the kids going back to school I am not sure. However on Wednesday it was slowly creeping back and I managed to colour up my new magnolia and by yesterday I managed to make her into a card! It is my gorgeous niece's birthday tomorrow so I had the perfect reason to make a card using my new stamp.

I have made my card using this weeks sketch from Friday Sketchers and added some dimension, something I have not been doing a lot of lately my cards have not been layered up in height (I used to always do this) here is a side pic to give you a better idea...

I am also entering this card into this weeks challenge at Make It Colourful which is a colouring challenge, using shadows and depth in you colouring. I think I have managed this.

I resisted the urge to use my Webster papers and went back to some old favorites my October Afternoon papers. I just felt that they suited the image well and as my card is for a 5 year old I wanted it to have a younger feel to it. Anyhow she loved her card to mission achieved!

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

Tuesday throw down - buttons

Magnolia stamp lovers - glitter ( the balloon is but the photo does not really show it)

Craft us crazy - anything goes

Robbie's at a party at the pool at the moment and Mick and Lizzie have gone along so they could have a swim so I have a few hours up my sleeve, wonder if my MOJO will allow me to make a start on another card? Time will tell I imagine.

Thanks for stopping by, until next time xoxo

Ingredients -

Stamp - Magnolia coloured using copics (sorry did the other day so cant remember what colours I used)

Papers - October afternoon

Embellishments - ribbon, lace, buttons, glitter and flowers

Other elements - Tilda's lace die, nestabilities, paper piercing and faux stitching

Ooops I have a confession!

Last year when Kellie (Tickled Pink Stamps) brought out the Stamping Bazaar range I was jumping up and down in my chair with excitement and quickly placed my order imaging all the gorgeous cards I would make with it. Well quite a few months later I have finally managed to make my first card using it. I am not sure why it took so long, I have even had the image sitting there all coloured up waiting to be used. Anyhow yesterday I decided that I was going to use it and enter Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenges (something I have also been wanting to do for a long time now). There current challenge is a nice and easy one this month, anything goes.

Armed with this weeks sketch from Friday Sketchers off I went and this is what I came up with.

A pretty basic card but seeming it is for a male I did not want to go too heavy with embellishments. 

I also entering this into the following challenges:

Stamp Something - Anything Goes

Creatalicious Challenges - Ribbons with LOVE (this card is actually a valentines card for hubby)

Cupcake Challenges - Something New (As I had never used Hansel before I still consider him new)

Paper Sundaes - Circles

The Stamping Bazaar - Use Punches

Well I am now off to spend sometime with my hubby. We have lost our kids for the day so we are going to enjoy some kid free time together. 

Thanks for stopping by, until next time xoxo

Ingredients

Stamp - Hansel with Flowers (on sale at Tickled Pink Stamps at the moment) 

Coloured using copic markers

Papers - October Afternoon, Craft & Black cardstock

Embellishments - Ribbons and buttons

Other elements - Faux Stitching, Spellbinders nestabilites circles and scallop circles, ink smudging and pearls

A Thank You

If you are in Melbourne I hope you are enjoying the gorgeous weather today. I have been out and about and enjoying the feeling of the sunshine on my back (I reckon it has to be one of the best feelings).

The card I am showing you today is for my son’s wonderful teacher. Robbie has entered his schooling life this year and has had some difficulties but his teacher has been fantastic. We are so pleased that he has her and grateful for all the extra effort she has given. We are going to give her this card with a bunch of flowers to try and show our appreciation. I made this card yesterday afternoon but ran out of energy to do a post.

The card’s layout is based on this weeks sketch over at Friday Sketchers:

 

 

 

I will also be entering this card into Quixotic Challenges - Let Your Garden Grow! Basically you had to make your own flowers. I came across a tutorial on how to make these flowers about a month ago and have been itching to give it a go. Unfortunately I can not give credit to where it belongs as I have lost my slip of paper that I had written it down on and it was not on one of my regular blogs as I have checked. If however you do know where the tut can be found please let me know so I can post a link here. Here is some close ups of the flower:

Being the toughest of critics that I am I am convinced the flower is too big and does not fit in well and think that I may remove it. In fact here is a pic without the flower tell me which you prefer?

I have used my watercolour pencils for colouring the image, October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket patterned papers, old olive Stampin Up cardstock, kaisercraft pearls, paper doily I got from local $2 shop, Sarah Kay stamp, Flowers Soft, sentiment from Kraftin Kimmie, scalloped punch and faux stitching.

Well I better dash only got ½ hour to get organized before need to pick up the kids from school.

 

Until next time xoxo

Phew what a weekend!

We have just had a long weekend and what a busy one of that did we had! Saturday night we had an engagement party for some good friends (my hubby and I are their best man and matron of honor) and did not get home till 2am. It was a great night with everyone dressing up with a bit of country flair. It is so good to see them both so happy with each other lets hope they have many years of happiness ahead of them, they both deserve it.

After a lazy Sunday morning we headed off to another dear friends house to celebrate her eldest daughters 8^th birthday. The kids had an absolute ball. That night us and another family headed back to Dee’s to have some champers, takeaway and good laughs. It is so nice to have such good friends that make you feel loved and know just the right thing to say so girls if you are reading this mwah you are the best!

Yesterday we headed down to see my hubby’s grandma’s before heading off on a drive to see the all the autumn leaves at the wineries in the Yarra Valley, unfortunately we were about a week too late and the leaves had already turned and dropped but the drive was nice anyhow. Last night we went to mum and dads to celebrate my sisters’ birthday which was also a great night.

So you can see why today after doing my cleaning and washing I wanted to sit back and have a nice relaxing cuppa!!

The card I am bringing you today I made for the couple whose engagement party we went to on Saturday night. They had a country theme for their party so I wanted to make a card that blended in. The image fits perfectly and I think the papers do too. The card is a lot brighter than what I would normally do for an engagement card but as I said I wanted to keep in the theme.

 

This card I will be entering into Friday Sketchers and Stamp Something (charmed somethings).

 

 

I have used Patterned paper from October afternoon and Cosmo Cricket, cardstock Stampin Up, stamp is by Sarah Kay, colouring is done using water colour papers, not sure where I got the charm from and the buttons I had in my stash.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

I will be back tomorrow with my DT card for this week challenge over at Papertake Weekly. Be sure to pop by and have a peek!

Until next time xoxo

 

 

A day of celebrations

This afternoon I surfed my way over to The Pink Elephant and was looking through their top 12 when I discovered that I was one of them. I am surprised you did not hear my squeal of delight after I found this out as it the first time I have won an award. I am now proudly display my award on my sidebar!

My second celbration for today was that Elizabeths netball team won their game 19-0 which is a hige achievement for them. They only started in September last year and to see them have such a good game is just fantastic.

Then the third celebration for today is I am off to an engagement party for my cousin. As she is still relatively young I wanted to make her a card that was a bit funky and a little left to the centre. I decided to do the sketch over at Friday Sketchers and I also incorporated this weeks challenge over at All That Scraps Weekly Wednesday Challenge (easel card). I have never made an easel card. I always thought they looked a bit fiddly but they are the complete opposite they  are so simple and I love the effect of them.

Anyhow I better make this short as I have to get ready. Here is the sketch:

  

And here is my card:

 

I have used another of my stamps from the Sugar Plum Spring Set that I got from All That Scraps a month or so ago (still got about another 3 images that I am yet to ink). I have used my copics for colouring, paper from October Afternoon, Stampin Up Cardstock. and the Fiskars Apron Strings punch. I think that I have listed it all!

 Well I better be off now as I have to get ready.

Until next time xoxo

Sweeping my way into lots of challenges

So I got my new windswept stamp last week from Funky Kits (it is one of those stamps that I hummed and ahhed about for ages and I must say I am so pleased I finally got it) and have been aching to get it out and play with it. I actually coloured it on Sunday afternoon and then put it aside waiting for some mojo to arrive!

So this morning after I dropped the kids to school I came home pumped up the music cleaned the house, did some washing and then sat down with a clear head. I knew that I wanted to do this weeks sketch over at Friday Sketchers so that is where I headed straight away. I saw that one of the DT Members, Claudia, had done a gatefold card which inspired me to follow suit as I have not done a gatefold in ages. I am also entering this into this weeks Stamp Something challenge (something Green and Cream), Totally Gorjuss (something Sweet, becuase the colours in the papers remind me of a sweet lolly and the also think the image is very sweet), and The Pink Elephant which is Spring themed (seeming spring is renowned for being windy).

So here is the wonderful sketch provided by Jacque the host of Friday Sketchers this week:

 

And here is my card:

 

I have to say that I love the papers and can not believe that the groovy guava that I had hanging around matched the colour of the flowers in the patterned paper perfectly. The patterned paper is called I’m yours by Vintage Valentine. The lace I picked up from Dandenong market a few weeks ago at an absolute steal for $1 per metre! I have also used groovy guava double stitched ribbon and watercolour pencils. I really struggled to come up with a flower embellishment so I cut out some of the flowers from the patterned paper and had mounted it on, here is a closer look:

 

 

I love the simplicity of this card and will be putting it aside as for my mum, for mother’s day, as she has always loved the gatefold cards.

Well it is now 3pm so I better get this posted before I have to pick up my cherubs from school.

I hope you are all having a great week.

Until next time xoxo

 

 

 

A mixture of things....

Hi again. I know it has been over a week since my last post but I have had NO ENTHUSIASM to make cards this week. Not sure what it was but I would sit down with every intention to make a card and that would be as far as it would go. Admittedly I have been busy, having coffee with friends, LOL!

Friday Kirsty, Dee the boys and I went for a drive out to Paper 2 (about 1hr trip, one way) and I picked up some more papers. As I mentioned previously I love the cosmo cricket and October Afternoon papers at the moment. I think it is the patterns and colours that are appealing to me.

Yesterday I went to see Rob Thomas at Rochford Winery. He was fantastic and what a way to see him out in the open air. Now I am sure the ladies out there will agree with me when I say aaahhhh what a spunk!

So onto the card I have for you today. I ended up making this card with the paper I got on Friday and by following this weeks sketch over at Friday Sketchers and challenge at Papertake Weekly (use checks or gingham).

 

I am happy with how the card came out although I did struggle. With my enthusiasm of wanting to use the papers and Chester I forgot how hard male cards are to embellish!! I think I managed to pull it off though!  

What have I used? Paper from Cosmo Cricket, Lil’Man: Handsome Henry (both sides), Chester from Kraftin Kimmie, Copic markers, Spellbinders Nestabilities, sentiment from C.C. Designs Spring Kit purchased at All that Scraps, wire and buttons. You can see that I have also applied some faux stitching.

Well that is it for me today about to head out to my Mum and Dads for our family Sunday night dinner.

Until next time xoxo

Friday Sketchers #87

I can not believe it is Sunday already, this week has flown by. I have been busy with the kids and also running around that I have not really had the chance to play with my stamps this week. So today with nothing on and it being hot again I decided to hibernate for the morning and play with my stamp from High Hopes.

So after sifting through all my favorite challenge sites this morning Friday Sketchers appealed the most today.

 

 

As you can see the image is quite big this is why the sketch appealed to me as I thought it suited it well. I think I will get quite a bit of use out of this stamp. I used my watercolour pencils again (getting happier with the result each time I use them), cardstock is Stampin Up, So Saffron & Really Rust and the patterned paper is from kaisercraft. The stamp is called T. Sir Dustin which as I mentioned is by High Hopes Rubber Stamps.

I am really happy with the way this card has turned out for once it did turn out how I imagined!

Elizabeth starts back at school tomorrow (insert cheer!) and Robbie starts his school life on Thursday so I should have more time on my hands again and will be able to get back to making more cards and participating in more challenges.

Anyhow if you are a Melbourne mum I hope if you have little ones off to school this week and that you can sit down and have a cuppa and enjoy 10 minutes silence!

 

I will hopefully be back in a few days.

 

Until next time xoxo

Friday Sketchers

Where is all the time going? It seems like only last night I was on here showing you my card for Papertake Weekly but it was 3 days ago. I suppose that is what happens on school holidays the time just seems to get gobbled up!

Last week I was doing some blog surfing when I came across a brand of stamps, Lili of the Valley and of course I was not able to resist. Lol. So you can imagine my excitement when they turned up in Tuesday’s mail and I could play with them.

I decided to tackle this weeks challenge over at Friday Sketchers

 

 

A nice clean layout, just what I like at the moment.

Here is what I came up with:

 

Now I am not sure if I am convinced about the flowers but as they are threaded through the layer with the image on it and it is all stuck down there is not a lot I can do about it. 

I had lots of fun with water colouring on this one. As the image was so cute I did not want to take away from it with heavy embellishing.

So what I have I used, stamp from Lili of the Valley, Stampin Up watercolour crayons, flowers from spotlight, the pink paper is from kaisercraft and the green patterned paper is from autumn leaves, watercolour paper from Deb’s shop (she packages this herself and I have found this to be the best) lace punch from fiskars and Mellow Moss cardstock from Stampin Up.

I hope you all have a great day.

Until next time xoxo

Anything but a christmas card!

It is so nice at this time of year to have an excuse to make anything but a Christmas card! Luckily for me it is my gorgeous sister’s, Sarah, birthday is tomorrow.

 

I have used this weeks sketch over at Friday Sketchers for my card:

 

 

Oh my goodness this sketch ended up being a real challenge for me. It has taken me hours to come up with an interpretation of the sketch that I was happy with. After much deliberation I finally came up with something that I really liked.

 

 

 So I have used DS Paper and cardstock from Stampin Up, copics for colouring, sentiment stamp from bella and miscellaneous flowers I had hanging around. I have also done lots of faux stitching and of yeah used kaisercraft pearls along the bottom.

 

I am looking forward to a few busy days with birthday and Christmas celebrations with my family and my summer holiday with the kids and Michael.

 

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas with your families and loved ones and I will be looking forward to coming back in the new year with some more creations.

 

Until next year xoxo

Friday Sketchers

Hi again. I hope you have all had a great couple of days. Things have been pretty quiet on my end, which is always good!!

After shopping today and with the weather closing in I thought it was a good excuse for a card afternoon. A great sketch has been provided this week over at Friday Sketchers:

 

 

And here is my card:

 

So I have used a stamp from the Sarah Kay range, I just love these. I have also used patterned paper from the Bella Range, ribbon is by Green Tara and the flowers I got from spotlight. I have used copics for colouring and also done some faux stitching.

 

So that is about all I have for you today. I am looking forward to tonight when I catch up with Dolina.

 

Until next time xoxo