New cards!

Lookie here! I'm posting twice in one month {gasp!} Don't fall of your chair! {giggles!}
Since having Flinders, and since Jaimeson gave up his day sleep (I nearly said since Will gave up his day sleep.... hahahaha! He wishes he got a day sleep!) I have had to be more efficient with my time, and do what I can when I can. Lately I have been getting to have some creative time once the boys have gone to sleep at night, so that means after 8pm. But after being up once overnight for a feed, then having my day start at 6 or 6:30am, means my creative juices aren't flowing so well by that time of night! I have mainly been doing Project Life, cos it's like a double page spread of little projects. My poor little card box is feeling very neglected! I can almost fit a closed fist in the box now, and usually they are jammed so tight in I can hardly fit any more!
So these last 2 weeks I've been trying to channel my nightly, drained brain's last ounces of creativity into some cards, and I'm happy to say it's been working quite well! Also, Will kindly distracted both the boys for an hour and a half on Sunday, so I got to have some crafting time {hugs Willy!}.
I just realized there's a bit of pink here, maybe that's to balance all the boy stuff that's going on in my life at the moment. LOL!
Baby Cards. Can't get enough of them. Can't make enough of them! It seems people are always having babies {tongue in cheek!} and these cards are always running thin in my card box.
I am still loving bunting banners, it's such a sweet way to show off a few patterned papers on one card, use up all your scraps, and get a bit of sewing on a card too! The gorgeous elephant is from Stampin Up & so is the sentiment.
Then I went ahead and made the same card in a different colour-way. Yeah for time management! Two cards are quicker than one! And it's not like people get together for a chat and are comparing my creativity, like "Oh look, she made us the same card, only in different colours!" LOL! As if!
Then I had this leftover piece of printed scalloped paper after I made an envelope using my new WRMK Envelope Punch Board (love it!) {hugging punch board quietly in the corner}, so I decided to try to use it in a clever way. I came up with this cool Blimp card, do you like it? I love it! I stuck the giant scallop paper over the top of some hot pink tiled paper I've had for, oh, about 400 years. Seriously. It's ancient. But I loved it, cos it's bright, funky & geometric. Just my kinda thing! Yay to have finally stopped hoarding it, and getting it out to use it! I put the pink & purple pearls around the scallop and it reminds me of the rivets on a submarine window, so maybe that suits a blimp too!
And then I had another weird shaped bit of paper leftover, so threw together this sweet whale Birthday Card which is my favourite card of the year so far! Plus the fact that I managed to tie the best bow I've ever tied with that pink ribbon. High Five {slap!} I love that whale, he's just gorgeous. Another Stampin Up set!
After a quick look through my Card Box I realised I needed more Thank You cards too, so here's one to add to the box. I love this paper, which came from a beautiful paper pad from Aldi of all places! Dad would be proud, he loves Aldi! I embossed the "Thanks" with a gorgeous American Crafts ZING glittery embossing powder. I think the pattern on the paper,looks a bit Scandinavian, is it the little birdies? Sweet anyway.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my latest card creations, and the fact that I've blogged again! LOL!

:) C

More Holiday Cards

Hello! Good Morning! Oh, I think I just missed morning... Good Afternoon then!
Jai and I are off to the Doctor again this arvo to see about our colds/flus. Poor Jai's little voice is hoarse now after coughing for 2 weeks! And sometimes when he coughs he does a little whimper afterwards, it's so sad {tear rolling down cheek}. This will be our 3rd trip to the Doctor in 2 weeks so I'm hoping this time we might get some Antibiotics to clear it up for good! I've had a coughing fit with a little tickle in my throat the last 2 nights and it is so annoying!
Here are the other cards I made while we were away on holidays. I am happy to say some of these stamps are seeing ink for the very first time in these cards!
Of course, because it was holidays, I had to use some Ice Cream stamps! And bright colours to go with them makes them feel even more summery! I love the "thanks sweetie" sentiment, it's from Studio G, along with the Ice Creams. I do love making fun, bright cards in summer! And I don't think my card box has enough Thank You cards in it, I'm working on that!
Then the next 2 cards I made with a Fairy stamp I bought at Pineapple Cove Scrapbooking Shop in Hawaii. I don't have any other stamps like it in my collection so I bought it, but this is the first time it's seen ink! I guess 11 months in my collection without being inked is quite some time! Give me a break- I did move house and have a baby in between! Actually when I come to think of it, 11 months is probably not a long time compared to some other stamps I have which haven't seen ink yet. {slapping back of hand}. I really need to cull some unused stamps sometime!
I had fun colouring the fairy in with my Stampin Write Markers and some glittery gel pens. She turned out so pretty as both a blonde and a brunette! And Yay for using up more small paper scraps from my collection to make the Backgrounds for these cards. I may not be up to par on my New Year's Resolution to use up 20% of my stash of 12x12 papers, but I think I'm on my way with the scrap stash!
And one more card to finish off- I used my Wordsworth Stick People to create a Baby Card. I know so many people who have had babies lately, mostly from work or church, so having extra baby cards in the box never goes astray! And the last 3 babies have been girls too! I love these stick people too. They've seen ink many times over!
And lastly a pic of Jai. I can never get enough of how sweet he looks in his Car Seat! He is just soooooo gorgeous. He usually has both hands out flat on his lap, it's soooo cute! I have sooo many pics like this one, cos I go to get him out of the car and I am overwhelmed with his cuteness and I have to take a pic! Awe, love my little boy {hearts rising from head!} Can you believe he is 4.5 months already? {sigh} Time is whizzing past so fast. Soon it will be Christmas!
:) C

Some cards..

Hi Y'all!
Well Jaimeson and I survived our big day out in the city yesterday, it was lots of fun! I fed him 3 times while we were out, which was a big achievement and had to change his nappy in the pram twice which was a challenge! We had a great day though, I got lots of cool stuff at the show and Dad's 40yr Service Medal Ceremony was very good! Everyone said how well behaved Jaimeson was, which was excellent! Good work Jai!
So I've been making cards lately, hooray! I like making them cos they are little individual projects that I can complete in short bursts in the limited time I have at my desk! I have been trying to step out of my comfort zone too and use some different papers to my normal style! And these papers have been in my stash for a little while too, I hope you still think they turned out good! I have brushed off some stamp sets I haven't used in a bit too and I've had lots of fun! I used Stampin Up's Aviary and Awash with Flowers stamps for the main images and the sentiments are from Thoughts and Prayers, Good Friend and Rivetting. Plus I rolled out some cool die-cut Nestability shapes (what the birdhouses are stamped on) on my Cuttlebug which I haven't done in ages too! Yay! {high five!} I wish I could spend even more time at my desk making cards, or bring my desk up to our warm bedroom instead of in the cold cold garage, cos I have been very inspired lately but it just gets too cold at my desk by the afternoon. Bummer! So you know how I love to make 2 cards at the same time, cos if you've got the stuff out and you're making one, you may as well make 2! Especially if you already have someone you're going to send the first one too, then you have another one ready in your box for the next person! So anyway, here they are...
So what are you doing this weekend? Last weekend we hired a movie (The Fighter) and I fell asleep after about 1/2 hr! Plus Jaimeson was a bit unsettled through it so I wasn't concentrating anyway. I didn't bother going to Civic Video to hire another one this week! Especially after our busy day in the city yesterday and cos Will did OT at work until 2am this morning cos one guy called in sick. Will is such a trooper, but no doubt he'll be asleep on the lounge by 9pm too!
:) C

Jaimeson Thank You's!

Hi Y'all!
I am soooo impressed with myself (if I might say so myself {patting own back}) cos I've made my Thank You cards for Jaimeson! Hooray!! I was hoping to get the made and sent out ASAP and I was lucky enough to grab a couple of half hour sessions at my desk last week which enabled me to throw together these sweet little cards :) I had formulated the idea in my head again, before I got the chance to get to my desk so it made me heaps more efficient than if I had have just sat at the desk and then thought "hmmm..... how to make my thank you's!" I am pretty proud of them actually! I punched the birds out of scraps of boy-ish papers from my scrap stash, the leaves from green scraps, stamped the Kraft card with my Stampin Up Woodgrain background stamp in Chocolate Chip ink, punched the scallop circle from Baja Breeze card, stamped the Thank You (co-incidently the same font as our wedding font and the font on the announcement- I must really love that font! Yes I do.) in Chocolate chip, stuck it all together and stapled some beautiful ribbon I got in Melbourne on the top, banged on a jewel and voila! I love them! {clapping hands!} And it feels so good to have them written on and posted too.
Another thing I really wanted to send out with the Thank You cards was a birth announcement with a pic of Jaimeson on it. I love to trawl etsy and have seen many beautiful announcements, the difficulty was finding one that beat all the others! I chose this one by Ink Obsessions and I really love it! You buy the digital file, email your pic and info and she emails you back the file as a jpeg which you can get printed at any photo place! It was super quick too, she emailed me back overnight after I had sent my pic and info to her in the afternoon! {high five!} I am sooooooooooooooooo happy with them! They are so professional and would look awesome on anyone's refrigerator door {wink!} Its a great idea for birthday invites too. I had to choose a pic of Jaimeson doing a little smile too, he's so sweet!
:) C

Some Long Awaited Craftiness!

Wow, it has been totally ages since I posted some crafty stuff so here 'tis!

I have a Stampin Up Party at Fliss's tomorrow which is always fun! She hasn't had a lot of RSVPs yet (leavin it to the last minute people!!) so it might be small, but that just means we can make more! Yay!! As soon as I saw the Trendy Trees set in the new catalogue I knew it would be the first one I bought. I just love it {heart!}. I can imagine so many possibilites with it, for all occasions. This card I cased off Splitcoast Stampers, I loved the LO, but I changed up the colours a little and only used 2 stripes at the bottom so it wasn't too busy. My fave trees are the middle and right one, the right one is so cute! It reminds me of someone's recycle logo, which company is that?! I can't remember... anywho, do you like it?! The background round dotty stamp is one of the set of trees too, but makes a pretty cool BG.

I like to make a few samples with the stamps we'll use in class, so far I have only made this card (yeah, I do my best work at the last minute! Well, thats what I'm banking on anyways!) I bought the co-ordinating roller wheel too, SU really know how to suck me in with co-ordinating products. But having the wheel makes it sooooo easy to make cool, quick cards! Love it also! Gonna run and make a couple more in brighter colours.... see ya!

:) C

And Owl Will Love You.. Owlways...

I hope you now have Bon Jovi stuck in your head too :) {sniggering to self}. Well, today has been an interesting mixture of uneventful and eventful! And I accomplished my goal of taking a non-crafting related pic- you can check it out next time I do my Project 365 mosaic in another 8 days.. There's a tempter for you to come back and check me out! Lol.

After wasting my morning waiting for a potential new housemate that decided at the last minute my place is too far from her work so didn't come, I was wandering around aimless at home cos my whole day had been messed up. I was surfing for some new Baby Stamps when I realised Art Stamps is the Australian distributer for Hero Arts and had all their new stamps in! I jumped in my car and toodled off to their shop (conveniently only 15mins from my house.. woo hoo!) and I relaxed and indulged my stamping senses in looking at all the new Rubber. Delicious! I only got one stamp from the new range (however, family, I saw many sets I wanted there!) but as soon as I saw it I put it in my shopping basket, and that's where it stayed. No, it's not an owl or a baby stamp after all.. it's woodgrain {licking lips, thinking of all the wonderful cards and scrappin I can do with this stamp!} It is actually a big circle of woodgrain and it just fits inside my Giga Scallop punch from Marvy so it's a match made in heaven. Check out the cool cards I made with it when I got home! I stamped it in Chocolate Chip on Kraft, and I think it turned out fabulously! That's the eventful part- upon making it home at 2:30pm, I made 3 cards and am currently baking a dairy free, egg free, nut free cake for Felicity (we'll see how that turns out- it currently smells pretty good though!!)

Check out the paper on this third card... I think it may have been one of the first papers I ever bought. That makes it about 9 years old! Oh my gosh!! Get rid of it!! Why on earth do I still have it! Lol. It's so amazing to think I have had some supplies for that long! Oh yeah, there is a spanner in the works for my New Year's Resolution. I just found 11 more papers I bought in the after Christmas Sales at Spotlight and RJ's in Wollongong. D'oh! This means instead of being 6 papers down with 48 to go, I am actually 5 papers up. Crap on a stick! Oh yeah, the scallop square punch is from Stampin Up's Summer Mini and the Thank You stamp that fits inside it is from a set in the Summer Mini called "Say it with Scallops." Already quite well used by me!

Hope you're doing something interesting for your Saturday night!!

:) C

Strawberry Fields

I needed to make some Thank You cards for my box and when I discovered this Strawberry Paper by "Paper Patch" in my stash (seriously, it's at least 5 years old!! OMG!! Do Paper Patch even still exist?) I knew it would be so cute with my Papertrey Ink Strawberries and cute sentiments! The green/cream stripe by Chatterbox is probably also about 5 years old too... man I need to get cracking on using up old supplies! I'm trying!!

So I stamped the Strawberries and the "Thank you Berry Much" sentiment onto a white scallop oval I cut out with my Marvy punch. I love that red and white spotty ribbon, it's so luscious and bold, it really sweetens up these cards!

And of course, when you're onto a good design.. stick with it! I made 3 cards in total with the green/red/strawberry design. This second one is probably my fave cos I love those 2 big flowers! Oh that's another thing I haven't even put a dint in, in the last 3 years. My prima flower collection. Do they multiply in the jars? Cos I have used so many and the level of flowers in the jars seem to be exactly the same!! What the?

This third card uses another one of the sentiments in the Papertrey set.. "May the Simple Joys of Life be Yours". How sweet is that! I thought it also went nicely with the Strawberries. My Real Red SU stamp pad is just so juicy that it made it hard to stamp out that little strawberry clearly. And when I stamped this one it splashed a tiny little red dot of ink on the white scallop.. so annoyed!! So I covered it with 2 little bling kaisercraft jewels! HA!! That'll teach you red stamp pad, I am infallible!

:) 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

Pink Free!! {EEK!}

I SOLEMNLY DECLARE THAT I WILL NOT USE PINK THIS WEEK!!!
I DECLARE THIS WEEK TO BE "PINK FREE" FOR ME!!

Oh no! What have I done? Remember a couple of posts back I said I would try to not use so much pink? Well I'm making this declaration so I stick to my promises! For the next week I will not be using pink, not in my cards or my scrapping. I will try to not even let a little bit sneak in... {but you know how sometimes there is just the tiniest bit of pink on papers... its gonna be hard!!} But I will try :)
So... here are my first efforts in the Pink Free week:
Alicia (my sis) has been invited for the past 2 years onto the Bond's Ferry for the annual Australia Day Ferry Race on Sydney Harbour and she has generously taken me along {hugs}! We have had the most AWESOME time both years, it's just a fun filled day and the atmosphere on the harbour is spectacular!! There are soooo many boats following in the 4 ferrie's wakes and we are singing, dancing, cheering and enjoying ourselves as we race around! I LOVE it! I have never really done much in the way of patriotic stuff on Australia Day (usually just BBQ's) so it's awesome to feel some National Pride :)
And of course, NO PINK!! {Woo Hoo!}
And a card too! NO PINK!! I love tree and bird stuff at the moment so when I found this Hero Arts Stamp at Art Stamps for $6 I was cheering! It is totally stuck on the block at a massive angle compared to the image on the block though, which is totally frustrating. I guess that's the bonus of mounting your own with SU, you mount them exactly how you want them! It makes beautiful cards though (once I worked out the correct angle to stamp it!)
I hope you like them! I will continue in my efforts to maintain a PINK FREE WEEK!
:)C

Thank You Cards

Ooohh, don't you just love this cute little birdie!! She's from Studio G (cost me $4 at Art Stamps at the Rocks- Bargain!!) I think she's soooo sweet and fun to colour too (coloured here with blender pens and SU inks). I'm bummed Art Stamps is moving to Pymble, they are soo close to me here and its great to be able to pop in before work. Oh well. That just means it's even more of a craft wasteland in my area after we lost Lincraft and the 2 Scrappin shops at North Parramatta. Thank goodness for online shopping :)

Why can't I get out of the groove of using pink papers? I dunno, I need help! I'm sure not everyone wants a pink card but I love using pink. I should take all the pink stuff off my desk for a week and challenge myself to use other colours. I did manage to make one blue/green card (see below) but then I reverted to pink again. D'oh!

I am also loving my Cuttlebug with the Nestabilities dies :) it's so great! Last night I sat down and cut out a whole bunch of rectangles in all different colours so they're on hand when I want to quickly whip up a card. So cool. And I'm slowly using through my massive pile of Prima flowers, as you can see. I'm sure everyone is like me and has about 4 bottles of the things! They are great for cards though.

And here I am back to the pink cards again, and it's my favourite tree stamp from Inque Boutique. There are so many in this brand that I want to get, and at $6 for a set they are the world's best bargain at the moment. The flourish with leaves comes from the set too. The wording is from a Hero Arts set and is actually being said by a little birdie (who I didn't ink up cos he wouldn't fit on the card) who is also very cute. Man I am totally into birds and tree stamps at the moment, I can't get enough of them! I am waiting on Owl stamps from America too so you'll be seeing more birds from me!

Have a great Tuesday!

:) C