A baby card and a Public Embarrassment

Firstly I'll show you a baby card I finished at 11:30pm last night (another "odd time" of creativity!) It's for my sister's friend who just had a baby girl called Grace, hence the "G". I love the sentiment which is from my very well used Wordsworth baby set (the one with the stick people- so cute!) and the cute little ducky stamp, which I coloured here with watercolour crayons and an aquash brush, is from a Studio G set which I got at the Stitches and Craft show (yes, I am gradually getting around to using all the stuff I bought at the show, it just takes me a little time!)

And the reason why it takes me so long? My desk....

You know all those beautiful, neat, perfect, organised, clean, white scrap rooms they're always featuring in CK Mag? Mine is NOT one of those. Can you believe I do my work here? What a Public Embarrassment!! I guess you could call my organisational style eclectic.. creative.. or unique... or maybe messy and hap-hazard! How do I work amongst this I hear you ask? Well usually I try to push as much as I can out of the way and work in the 30cm x 30cm space thats left!! At least it's enough to fit a scrap page in!! hahahahah {laughing maniacally, cos if I don't I might just cry about it}. Do I wish the scrapbooking fairy would come in and design a system that works perfectly for me? Of course!! In the mean time... I might just keep on ignoring it! Alicia and I went to Domayne yesterday and I spent ages staring at this one shelving system imagining all my stuff on it and the sales-lady approached me a little hesitantly and said "Are you ok here?" cos I hadn't moved a wink for a full 5mins! I was so deep in organisational thought! I didn't get the shelves though (no spare $900!), and so this mess stays. Oh well.

Hope you had a good weekend, and keep warm!

:) C

The Cat's Pajamas Stamps finally see ink!

Yes thats right... I finally inked up a couple of my Cats Pajamas stamps.. yay!! They have been patiently waiting on my desk for me to rediscover some time to have a play, and this week I managed to make 3 cards with them {hooray, waving a small Cat's PJs flag} [On a side note, I just got distracted checking out the new stamps on The Cat's PJ's website.. oops.. back to blogging!]
So the first stamp to see some ink was the nurse stamp.. oohh it is just so cute! I love that needle in her hand!! And the sentiment is just so funny :)

I made 2 cards while I had the stamps out (always a good idea!) The papers on this second card isn't shimmery like it looks in this pic.. I wish it was, it looks really pretty! Lol. Did I mention I love scallops and the pink/brown combo? True story. I blinged up around the edge of the scallop oval with my Sakura Stardust Gelly roll glitter gel pen, it is the way glitteriest (is that a word?!) pen I've ever had {I'm hugging it right now}.

And this third card is using the cute little Glamour Puss stamp, what a diva this cat looks like! I see attitude in those eyes! I whipped out the Cuttlebug and nestabilities again... hehe. I've got some more embossing templates on my wish list (family: if you are reading this I would like the Argyle and Floral Fantasy Embossing plates for Christmas!!) I only had the tiniest little scrap of that pink and yellow ribbon left so I folded loops and stuck them behind the black scallop square before I stuck it down. Sweet!! I've got heaps more Cat's PJ's stamps to play with so hopefully I'll get a chance over the weekend!

:) C

P.S. I ordered a whole bunch of new scrappin stuff from Two Peas today... now I can't wait for it to come! Keep your eyes's peeled for some new stuff soon (I hope!).

Getting Creative at Odd Times

Yep, the title sums me up at the moment. Last night I got home at midnight after a 12hr day, sat down at my desk and made this page in 45 mins, start to finish. And I mean from not knowing which pics I might scrap to putting it in my album! That is a total record for me :)
I initially bought this paper for cards (which I have only been doing lately cos usually cards get my scrappin offcuts or ones I end up not wanting to use for scrapbooking!!) but I just loved this Kaisercraft paper and when I put these pics on it, I knew it had to be. Kaiser are coming out with some awesome products, I love lots of their new papers! The black lace cardstock is from Art Stamps (2 sheets for $2.50 at the show, what a bargain), there are my fave AM thickers also, and the scallop journalling spot is from MM. Those cute tiny little wooden flowers I got from Art Stamps also for $1, they always seem to have cool little finds like that!
The pics are from our visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (you might remember it from an earlier post). When I asked Will to pose with the cardboard cutouts he decided to "blend in" with them instead! I love these pics so much, they really make me smile! The lower pics are better looking IRL, its just now you can see a shadow of me in my giant fluffy dressing gown reflected in them as I took the pic! Lol.
Its eating out night at work tonight... yay my funnest night of the week! I spend all day deciding what to eat (what a thrilling work day I must have!!). I think it's decided we're having fish & chips tonight anyway- naughty!! {cheekily grinning} I can't wait!
I also have no OT tomorrow and neither does Will, so we might actually get to spend some time together hanging out.. WOW!! I love Fridays cos they mean Saturday is almost here... wait.. I can't get ahead of myself, I still gotta get through Thurs.. mmmm...... fish & chips!!
:) C

Creative Day Kick Off...

Yay, I have started my Creative Day off really well, and finished a page I had gotten stuff out for yesterday!! Woo Hoo {happy dance}. I know I'm doing well cos I finished something and Dr Phil hasn't even started yet (if Dr Phil starts and I haven't done anything that means I'm way behind!)

I love snow!! Although I haven't seen it very much in my lifetime (growing up in the Northern Rivers of NSW- not the most snowy part of Australia!) so I am always delighted when I see it. I said last time it was 10 years since I had seen snow but I forgot there was a mini blizzard when I was in Tasmania so that was the last time.. only 5 years ago. Lol!! So long!!

So here's my chance to get out all that snow themed scrappin stuff I have (cos for some reason I still love to buy the snow stuff even though I never see snow!)

The title and journalling are on a big Basic Grey tag.. Love it! It's massive and I thought I would never use it so yay {cheering}! I took the opportunity to make a collection of snowflakes in the corner (using up stash.. Woo Hoo!!) and the "let it snow" paper is exactly how I felt when I was there.. I wanted more and more snow!

Hopefully I will keep the creative juices flowing!

:) C

New York, New York...du du di du di du..

Good Morning! Look, I got a little creative last night! Woo Hoo {cheering and blowing on a little hooter}. I had a really busy weekend, the shopping trip into Darlinghurst with my peeps was heaps of fun and I got a gorgeous pair of vintage Lemon Yellow Sling Back Heels {love}, a black short sleeve hoodie with owls on it (you know I can't get enough of owls!) and a funky bangle. We chilled out in a local pub with the fire blazing chatting about stuff we can't talk about at work with everyone else around, and had so much fun! It was pretty windy so it was nice to chill out near a fire!

Then yesterday I did a SU party with a fun bunch of girls, so that topped off a great weekend. I was soooo tired though, but was amazed when I got a creative wind at 9:30pm so sat down to do this page :)

It's of my trip to America in 2006... I want to go back!! I have had ideas for this page in my head ever since, but I had never sat down to put it all together. I wanted to use my olllldddd MM brick pattern lettering stickers, but wouldn't you know it.. they were no-where to be found! I may have sold them on ebay.. oh well, I like the way this page turned out anyway!! Lol. I love that scalloped journalling piece which is from the MM notebook. Look at my delicious handmade pasta with those 2 massive Meatballs!! YUM!! I can't wait to take Will to America some day.. we did get to Hawaii so that's almost there! I wanted to emulate the reds, golds and browns of this neighbourhood and I'm happy with this page. It's been ages since I did a page on this trip and when I inserted this page into the album, it puts some around it to shame with their "old style" photo placement etc. I guess that's the development and evolving of my style!

Hope you have a great working week!

:) C

One of A Kind

Happy Saturday! And how! I'm going shopping in the city with 2 of my work friends, we're going to eek out a bargain so wish us luck! Totally bummed the weather is absolute crap though, what happened to the sunshine?!

So here are a couple of class samples I made with the "One of a Kind" set from the Stampin Up Spring Mini Catalogue. I love this set! As soon as I mounted it I knew I was going to use it over and over and all these ideas kept popping into my head! I also bought the Boho Blossoms punch which punches out the flower stamp from One of a Kind perfectly! No more annoying cutting out by hand!! This colour combo- Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa and Purely Pomegranate is so beautiful together, I must buy at least another 4 packets of Purely Pomegranate before the In Colour period is over!

And then I made this Thank U tag in a totally different colour scheme.. I actually like it! (even though I thought the colours might have been a bit spewy together!) It's Certainly Celery, Real Red, So Saffron and Taken with Teal! Amazing that they actually look alright! Lol. The stamp is from another set in the Spring Mini called True Friend. I love it heaps also! The flowers in that set are pretty funky and it has an overall Cowboy or Boho kinda feel I think, totally cool.

So I better finish eating my breakfast then get ready to pick up my peeps. I hope the Sunshine manages to break through at some point, it's depressing out there!

:) C

Riding the Creative Wave

Quickly Quickly!! This has to be the fastest post ever so that I can get back to my desk and do more creative stuff before the day zooms past me... qqquuuiiicckkk!!
Here are some quick and simple Dad Cards I made with my new Gizmos and Gears set from Lizzie Anne Designs. Did I mention that I won a $20 voucher in their birthday celebrations, so I had to order stuff (as if I needed an excuse! lol!) I thought this set would be great for Dad cards as flowers and hearts don't seem to be manly enough! I didn't want to add too much ribbon or bling so this is how they turned out.. hopefully not too boring! The co-ordinating paper, letters and tag are all from a Colorbox pack I got at Walmart in Hawaii for $5. Man I love shopping in America, especially for scrappin stuff!
And now some more skull cards (hehe, I know you hate them Mum, but I like them!!)
I love a pink and black combo for girls with this set, it's so chic and pretty even though the skull image is not so girly!! I love blinging up the skull with bows or these gorgeous little heart jewels I got in RJ's at Corrimal in Wollongong. Every time I visit Mum and Dad it is an absolute MUST that we visit that shop. It's the best "crap shop" (cheap shop) ever, and they have heaps of great craft stuff like Jewels, 3D stickers, the Kaiser range.. all this at a discount variety store? Amazing! And of course there's a little nestabilities die cut with the sentiment on it :) so sweet.

And not to be left out, here is one for the Fella's which I made this morning. (The others were mostly made last Friday and I just hadn't stuck them all together). It's nice to have started off my creative day already! For this boy card I used the "Ink By Steph" range by Fiskars- the paper and stamps both come from this range. I got the paper pad really cheap and it's awesome to have some papers that go exactly with the stamps :) I love this range!
Ok now it's back to my desk to mount some SU stamps and make samples for a class on Sunday!!
:)
C

Shopping makes me happy!

Guess where I went today....? The Stitches and Craft Show, Yay!! {dancing around the room with glee}. It has become a tradition for Mum and I to go to the August show (althought they cancelled the Feb show this year anyway with no explanation.. anyone know why?) We have been joined on numerous occasions (like today) by my Auntie Julie as well as my cousin Megan, sis Felicity and Cooper. I had a great day, got heaps of bargains and lots of things off my shopping list and spent lots of $$$, as usual! I am sooooo tired now though cos I've been up and on the go for 17hrs non-stop. Argh!

So I thought you might like a little sneak peak at what I bought, and what hopefully you'll be seeing on lots of pages and cards when I get creative soon. Sorry there haven't been any posts this week; life has been fully hectic {lol} and I don't mean like "fully sik".

Probably my favourite find at the show (although I love it all, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it) were some little grab bags of bits and bobs I got at the Memories2Remember stall. They were $2.95 and have tiny felt shapes/chipboard shapes/arrows/journalling spots etc in them. I'm going to try to do little collections of fun stuff like Yvette does on her pages. I also got some big felt shapes from them too and the Maya Road Owl Stamp that is sooo cool! I love the October Afternoon die cut shapes you can see in the middle and the black/white thing on the right is a piece of super thin die cut tin!! Amazing!! And only $4, what a bargain. I'm going to get my tin snips out for that one :) I also got heaps of lucious ribbons so keep your eyes peeled for them on cards!

:) Sleep time now..

C

So Happy Together....

I just love these pics of Felicity and Cooper from Friday's photo shoot. They are so happy hanging out together, lots of smiles, cuddles and kisses!

I wanted to use all 8 pics on the layout so it's a bit crammed in, but they are all so beautiful I couldn't decide which ones to leave out!

The journal spot is a piece from the Making Memories spiral notebook which I cut in half for the title and the journalling. It's only the first one I've used from that book, I love the scallop shaped ones the best but this fit so well with the layout that I had to use it. Isn't it funny when you buy something for one particular piece and then use all the other bits first!! I do that a lot (maybe it's just me {shrugging shoulders}).

I love the red felt word "cherish" {happily stroking the felt}, they're so fuzzy and cute and a great font! The title letters are Velvet thickers, so fuzzy also but they lose their fuzz all over the page which is a bit annoying! The BG paper is actually blue diamonds but it's so pale and the light is terrible to take pics here at the moment, so you'll have to believe me! There is also a clear acrylic slide on the ribbon which says "Little One", its so sweet and looks cute IRL even though you can't really see it here.

Hope you're weekend was peachy!

:) C

The next Beckham?

Awe... how cute is Cooper! This pic is from the photo shoot I did with him and Fliss yesterday (380 photos later... you can never have too many pics of such a beautiful boy!)

I love that I can go over and spend time with Fliss and Cooper, it gives me something to look forward to after my long working weeks!

The chipboard stars and arrow are more orange than this IRL (they look red here!) but of course the page includes thickers and lace cardstock (lol! Always!!)

Cooper was so interested in that cute little soft soccer ball, but I have to say once he got it all he wanted to do was have a munch on it!!

Its so cool to imagine what he might want to do when he grows up.. will he want to be Beckham, or more like Casey Stoner? I'm sure his parents will be happy with whatever he chooses :)

I'm sure you'll see more of the photo shoot pics in coming weeks!

Hope you're Saturday is fun fun fun! It's date night for Will and I.. YAY!

:) C

A Morning Visit

Have I mentioned before that I live in one of Australia's ugliest suburbs? It is full of unit blocks, with tall native trees making everything seem so much darker (and I don't especially like natives, call me un-Australian) and everything is brown- the bricks, the painting on the units, the veranda railings, the trees etc. Brown. I look at other people's pics and think how they live in such a picturesque place and I live in Brownville.

Anyway.. Brownville does have it's occasional pluses.. and this morning I got a visit from him and his friend. That's right- my suburb is home to Australia's biggest Kookaburra (or so it would seem). He's MASSIVE, helped by the fact that he loves to fluff up and appear even bigger!

I have had an encounter where he was sitting on my veranda railing between me and my washing, and he always looks as though he's sizing me up to have a nibble so I had to abandon the washing til he was gone! This time he brought a friend with him also (behind on the branch).

They really are beautiful birds, despite the idea that he was thinking... "hmmm.. I start on those delicious thighs then work up through the belly.... "etc... Look how fluffy this guy is!! I was hesitant to get close to him cos I've seen 2 have a fight on the telegraph lines before which ended when one stabbed the other one with it's beak! Talk about nasty!!

So this was my morning visit, something to brighten up my view of the Brown suburb!

A Quickie Page

Oohh, 2 posts in one day.. feel special? Lol, I do! I'm posting this today cos Will is doing the City to Surf tomorrow (I was supposed to also but can't cos I've been sick {sad face}) and I promised him I would go to Bondi to pick him up (after some shopping at Bondi Junction of course!) so wont get time to post.
It has been a very productive day for me.. grocery shopping, vacuuming, washing floors, organise scrap shelves and now a page too! WOW!!
This one was only a quickie page that just came together {loving that!!} with the help of some thoughts while I was drinking coffee and staring at a pic of Will on my shelves! Talk about multitasking {patting self on back}. Love this shaped cardstock by Creative Imaginations, and of course, there's the thickers I love too :) Plus another favourite- the cute little "tattoo" rub-on by Creative Imaginations.
:) C

Something for the Ladies

About time I made some girly cards again!

Look Felicity, I managed to use this stamp without the white square taking up the whole card (I had been complaining about how big this stamp is!) I freehand cut around the balloons and the cupcake and cut the other edges straight so there wasn't so much white. How cool does it look! It actually looks as though the balloons and cupcake are standing off the card IRL. It's a Bella stamp of course.. one of my fave companies. I made 2 of this card, one Bella with brown hair and one with blonde :) gotta mix it up a little, next time I'll do red or black hair! I coloured her party hat, the cupcake sprinkles and the "shine" on the balloons with my Sakura Gelly Roll pen for a bit of sparkle.

This Blooming with Happiness set is one of the best sets for girly cards.. I love that dress! Using up some of my scraps here too {cheering!} Those cute little plastic ovals are just from BigW but add some cool bling :) I love the sheer ribbon too, very elegant.

And a Thank You card to finish up with. The vase stamp was a freebie I got from The Cat's Pajamas . They sent me a little selection of red rubber to say thanks for my order {big smiley face!} how cool is that! It's a cute, funky vase, which I coloured with my blender pen and SU ink then blinged up the water and flower centers with Kindyglitz. I sponged Lime Brilliance around the edge of the scallop rectangle using the plain square nestabilities as a stencil, then mounted it on foam tape. More sheer ribbon, some plastic ovals and it's done!

Hope you're all having a great weekend so far!

:)C

Turtle Time

Oh how cute is Cooper! This page is about my fave outfit of his from when he was real little (it's size 000 so you can imagine he's pretty small). It's sad to see him grow out of these cute little outfits I love seeing him in! I know he has heaps more gorgeous clothes to look forward to, but he's getting big so fast!

I have had this Doodlebug Turtle paper for... honestly about 5 years... but it is just SO cute! I was waiting for a baby to come along so that I could use it, and what better page than Cooper in his turtle outfit. Glad to have it out of the stash now though {feeling a bit shameful at having many many many papers for about 5 years!!}

Love those Sassafrass Lass stickers too :) Owls are my favourite!

:)C

New Rubber!

YYYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!! New stuff to play with! Happy Joy! I ordered some stamps from The Cat's Pajamas last week when they were having a 25% OFF sale and they arrived yesterday! (Not bad for having been sent from the US last thurs!!) Aren't they the cutest stamps {yeeee!!!! Squeals with delight}. The most painful thing was I got them out of the mailbox on my way out the door to work so I couldn't play with them yesterday! And here I am blogging about them now instead of playing too! D'oh! I have to mount all the red rubber ones on EZ mount foam but that doesn't take too long. I have some fantastic sentiments there.. "Hope you're feeling frisky soon" which goes with the nurse cat, "Blimey, how old are you?" which goes with the Pirate stamps as does "Hope you're feeling shipshape soon" etc. I love the Cowboy clear stamps too, they have great sentiments also: "Happy Birthday Pardner", "Theres a new sherrif in town". Hehe! I can't wait to play with them all!
:) C

Lets hear it for the Boys

I can hear you now..."More boy cards? uggghhh {sigh}" Well I'm sorry but the Rocket Ship was the only thing that inspired me last night! Thats right people, after another whole day of laying on the lounge willing myself out of the flu I finally got some energy to create something! {happy dance}.

The rocket is from the Inque Boutique set: "Out of this world" but funny enough it doesn't include that little sentiment! The sentiment is by Studio G, they had a whole bunch of new mini sets out when I went to Lincraft and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this one, I knew I had to have it to go with this rocket. It also came with the cutest tiny rocket in the set! I am trying to use up my ever growing pile of PP scraps cos the paper keeper they're in has broken once already, and I ain't just buying a new keeper just for scraps! In the end I thought these 2 papers do pretty well together!

Then I finally inked up this cute little Webber BBQ stamp also by Studio G (but a wood mounted one- who knew they made them?!) and made this fun Father's Day card. I have had the red chequered paper for ever but have used it on so many picnic pages/cards. I think I may be sad to see it all finally used up... wait... nah, I'm good. I made the sentiment using Stampendous clear alphabet I've had for yonks. It's a totally simple card, clearly in my flu-ey state I didn't have too much imagination, but I was happy to finally get something done!

Hope y'all are having a good weekend!

:) C

No Work, No Play, No Fun... sooo sick.

Sorry for the total lack of posts this week.. I have done absolutely nothing but lay on the lounge making involuntary "uuuuuhhhhhh" noises. I have been so sick with the flu, on top of my pharyngitis which means I have been sick for 3 weeks and I'm totally over it now! I have finally got the energy to sit up which means I might get something done tonight. Thats the bum about being sick- I'm at home and I can see my desk with all my fun craft stuff and haven't got the energy to do anything. Being sick is such a waste of time!

Ok, well I'll dig out something I prepared earlier (e.g. done ages ago but haven't posted yet!) seeing as I haven't got anything new!
I really like this layout of Dad and I at the V8's. Dad and I have a history of going to sporting events, ever since I was really little. I started going to tennis with Dad when I was about 3 or 4 (so that Mum wasn't stuck at home with 4 little girls!) I loved it when Dad let me sit in the umpire's box with him cos he'd let me call "Deuce". Although I thought it was "Juice". Lol. We've been to lots of different sports but Dad had never been to the V8's so I took him to watch them at Eastern Creek for his birthday. We had so much fun (Dad brought the paper for the in-between boring bits- good thinking!! haha)
Have a good weekend! Stay away from sick people!
:)C