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

Baby on my mind...

Hi y'all!
Well, today marks the beginning of Week 31 for Lentil (aka Baby Lam 2). How time is really flying! {whoosh, clock hands flying around like mad} Like monumentally flying! Before I know it, we will be a week away from Due Date and I wont have anything organised!! Argh {freak out!} What am I going to do with 2 children??!! I hope I can still steal some time away now and then to do some crafting!
At least having baby on my mind means I like to make Baby Cards too! LOL!
Here are some recent Baby Cards I've made.
I do love Elephants, especially on baby things. So you will notice a little theme here! LOL! Lots of elephants!
This first card is a bit of a neutral baby card, perfect for a baby shower. And a good little chance to use up some of my button stash! I must use buttons more often, I have oodles!

More elephants! This big cutie is by Kaisercraft, and I made him a little Congratulations sign to hold, with the sentiment from Stampin Up. A wee bit of washi on the side of the card is sweet too {smiles}. And I have enough washi to go around the Earth 3 times, so every tiny piece helps to reduce my stash {giggles}.
 
This Whale is from Stampin Up's "Oh Whale" set which I absolutely love! The waves and little star fish are also from the same set, isn't it just so cute! There's that SU sentiment again too. I love the font of that Congratulations, so elegant, yet not too scrolly and formal. Just right!

Another whale card :) This Congratulations sentiment is also from Stampin Up. It's one of my most used stamps! I love the soft blues of these baby boy cards too, so sweet!

And for the little boy who's parents are not into animals, how about a New Arrival card with a plane on it? It's a sweet Kaisercraft plane, and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft too. The stars are Stampin Up. Theres more blue/brown colour combos, I must have had those colour paper scraps on my desk!

And a brighter Baby Boy card here, with robot background paper and the Geometric arrow stamp from Stampin Up's "Oh Hello" set (one of my current faves!) I also stamped the big oval chevron from the Oh Hello set, and punched out the big star with my SU punch. I love how the chevron star looks! It's so pretty! More washi in the background too. Yeah! Use it up!

One last boy card, this one is a bit softer, with shades of blue and yellow (and just a tad bit of light brown!) The boat and bike are from Stampin Up and I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest for this one. I put a tiny pearl in the centre of the bike's wheel too, looks sweet! Have I also mentioned I have enough ribbon to wrap our whole house about 10 times? Yeah, I've really gotta use up my ribbon stash too!

And just to show I don't only make boy cards, here's a Baby Girl card! I love using the paper doilies on cards, and here I used a half one, some of my giant stash of ribbons, a few buttons from my massive collection and an elephant! It all came together so sweetly! Love this card.

I hope you've had a chance to be creative this week too!
:) C

Special cards for Special People

 Hi y'all!
I haven't posted any cards for a while! So here are a few of the recent cards I've made, for some very special people!
This first one was for my niece Venice when she was born! For some reason I didn't take a pic of the card after I stamped her name under the "Welcome" stamp. I had made a girl card and a boy card, waiting to see what flavour baby Alicia would have! And when Venice was born I personalised this card for her {smiles}. I LOVE the new hexagon embossing folder from Stampin Up, I love how it creates such an interesting layer on the card! And I nearly wore out my Martha Steward Doily Edge punch while punching through the grey cardstock, I think I might need a backup one of those! But I don't want to pay the $25 I saw it for at the most recent craft show. Boy I wish we had Michaels the craft shop over here in Australia, everything is so cheap in the USA!
This second card was for my nephew Cooper for his 5th Birthday which was a Construction Party! I knew that Road-print Washi Tape would come in handy for BOy Cards! How cool does that truck look driving along it? And I just love the Stampin Up set of big trucks, they are so cool! I used another Stampin Up embossing folder in the background layer of this card- the Woodgrain one. Another one of my faves! You know I love anything woodland-ish, so this is perfect for me. And then I found the screw-top brads in my collection and thought they were awesome to add to a Construction card! Was I right or was I right {tongue in cheek!}

This third card I made for Dad's birthday :) Dad is, and has always been, an enthusiastic and awesome photographer, so I knew the Amy Tangerine camera stamp would make a great birthday card for him! The yellow star cut-out card was actually still sitting on my desk after I made another card with the actual star I punched out, and when I chucked it on top of the other layers of this card I was like "Bing!" {Light bulb going on above head} "That looks so cool!" LOL! Do you every have those moments in card making? Where something accidentally happens and it turns out to make the best card? Yeah me neither {looking sheepish!}.

And this last card was for my sister Yvette's 40th Birthday! I do love Hot Air Balloons and seeing as Yvette was going on a Hot Air Balloon ride for her birthday, I knew I had to use this set (by Stampin Up!) I stamped it with Versamark ink and embossed with some aqua coloured Zing embossing powder I picked up at Spotlight. It's the bomb! The colour is sooooo rich and it created a lovely thick layer which looked so good! They make the Zing powder in about a million colours too, so I'm gonna have to go back and get some more (then force myself to do more embossing cos it's something I don't do often enough, yet it looks so good!) I hand drew on the little baskets under the balloons cos I didn't trust myself to line the stamp up right, and I was so pleased with the embossing result I didn't want to ruin it! Can you tell they're hand drawn?
So I hope you guys all enjoyed your welcome/birthday cards!
And I hope you're having a great week too!
:) C

Oh Baby Baby!

Hi y'all!
I'm setting this to automatically post while we're away, I'm not making cards on holidays. LOL! I'm probably sipping on a Mai Tai right now, or shopping my heart out at Ala Moana Centre! YAY!
I make a lot of Baby Cards for my card box. I think they are my most bought card! I guess people are always having babies aren't they?!

I really enjoy making baby cards, I think I have a lot of sweet stamps to use and I like the sweet soft colours!  This Owl is from Maya Road, and I paired it with some sweet pink and brown papers (a gorgeous colour combo) and the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

I'm sure I've made this card before, using the cute Kaisercraft Elephant stamp and some Stampin Up stars! I love it though, so I've made it again! The sentiment is from Stampin Up.
Sometimes I like to break out of the "soft box" though, and go with something a bit brighter, like this Tiger.

He's so cute! He is from Kaisercraft too. They have a great range of individual animal stamps! I have a few and I love them. They make great kids birthday cards too!

How about a Penguin? I {heart} this guy! He looks pretty cool in pink! How about adding some yellow ric rac? Yeah, looks cool!

I have also done him (or her) with a toothpick "flag" with the sentiment on the end, for Xander's birthday. Love it!

Back to the pastel cards, this time, with a Hero Arts owl and Stampin Up sentiment.

And a similar card in a different orientation.
Have you been making cards this week?
:) C

Little Boy Blue..

Hi Y'all!
Not long til NZ now, yay!!
Here are some Baby Boy cards to keep you inspired to create!

Clearly, I had the Kaisercraft Elephant stamp out on my desk when I was in a creative mood for these cards! I made 3 cards using him! He's so cute though, I couldn't put him down! And I paired him with the Stampin Up retired {sob!} set, "Seeing Stars" which is an awesome set for guys. I'm always bummed when they retire some really versatile sets like this one! Oh well, I have enjoyed perusing the new catalogue for new favourite sets! The sentiment is from Kaisercraft too.

I had fun making it look as though the elephant was blowing the stars out of his trunk! Then I added some jewels in between to add a bit of bling. You can never have too much bling, even on boy cards!

Baby blue and brown is one of my favourite colour combos for baby boys. In fact, I think it is my very favourite. It looks so smart! I've used Kraft and Bashful Blue cardstock from Stampin Up for the base cards. The "baby" sentiment on this card is from Stampin Up's Pennant Parade set.

Then I made a card to use up all those little patterned paper scraps that were hanging about on my desk! It reminds me a bit of quilting, piecing all the small bits together to create a fancy background. It's fun! Not to mention a fabulous way to use up all those tiny pieces you hoard! Or is that just me? {tongue in cheek} The sentiment here is Kaisercraft and the little boy is by Stampendous I think.
Have you been stamping lately?
:) C

Bunting Cards

Hi y'all!
Time for some cards? Yes, I think so! {high five} It's been ages since I posted some cards, so here are some for your perusal...
Do you know what craze I love and hope never goes away? Bunting. It's awesome. Not just as party decorations, but for bedroom decor, jewellry, on clothes, stamps, crafting, book covers and fabric. I'd love to be surrounded by bunting all day long. That would make me feel like my life was a constant party. Or circus. Actually, come to think of it, that may not be such a great idea...
But here are some cards I made using my current top fave thing (apart from Hot Air Balloons, which I've been telling Mum for about 18 months will be the next big thing and she didn't believe me til today!). I made Bunting cards! Hooray for me keeping all those ridiculously small pieces of patterned paper, and hooray for actually using them up {party poppers going off- at my constant party!}

I made a baby card..
The boat is a Hero Arts stamp, sentiment by Stampin Up.

And a Birthday card. The sweet fox is from Stampin Up's Fox and Friends, which sadly retired at the end of August. Boo! Sentiment also by SU.

And another baby card. Look, I sewed across the coathangers so it looks like they're hanging off the sewn line! I'm a genious!
It was fun to get out the sewing machine and ran along these cards in red thread. I think they look so cute! I sewed the bunting on the background paper before I stuck it down on the base card, so the sewing doesn't show from the inside of the card, and you don't have any loose thread ends hanging around. Up here's for thinking! {tapping head in a thoughful way}.
I encourage you to use up all those little scraps of paper to make Bunting Cards. It's fun!
:) C

Foxxy Baby Cards

 Hi y'all!
I have recently been on a bit of a binge making baby cards for my card box. Baby cards are always really popular, I guess there are always plenty of babys making their arrivals! I think I make more baby cards than any other type by at least double!

One of my All-time favourite sets is Fox and Friends from Stampin Up. I LOVE these sweet little animal images and they are perfect for baby cards (and children, birthdays, friendship etc!!) The Fox is my fave, look how sweet his face is!

These are really simple cards, I stamped the animals then punched the squares with Stampin Up's Scalloped Square punch, and the circles are a Marvy scalloped circle punch. Layered up some cards with pretty papers, grabbed some ribbon to accent and finished them off with some shimmer ink or jewels and stamped the sentiment. So easy!

I always do a production line and make a few similar, just with different patterned papers or images. I totally recommend that you make at least 2 cards at once, especially if you already have plans to give one away. It's so easy to make 2 if you're already making 1, you have all the stuff out on your desk already! And then you will have a "spare" for your card box, for when you need a card unexpectedly!
Don't forget, until the end of June I am offering 10% off all product, with no minimum order, and also free shipping if your order is over $50, in Celebration of my 5 years as a Stampin Up Demonstrator! Just email me at mrscharlottelam (at) hotmail (dot) com! It's a great time to grab the Fox and Friends set!
:) 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

Baby Card Stampage!

I've been on a Stampage! A Stamping Rampage, if you will {smirk} and I've been churning out baby cards like they're going out of style! It must be the inspiration from my gorgeous boy Jaimeson and the desire to use up more of my scrap stash so that I can keep up with my New Years Resolution! {High Five!} I think I've used up at least another 2% of my scraps in just a few days. LOL! It's such a numbers game for me, call me my Father's daughter!
Will's sisters are currently my best card clients, and Lil has been to so many baby showers lately that my baby card stash is quite diminished! There mustn't have been much on tv during the last quarter of last year! Hahahaha {belly laugh!} And I have been inspired to ink up lots of different stamps lately too, and break out some of my Stampin Up stamps that haven't seen ink yet! Like the sweet little stamps on the first 2 cards. I love the Sweet Pea (seeing as Jaimeson was called Peabody) and the Peanut is my second fave. So Cute! Actually, that's the name of this set too... ironic! I love the big pink flowers on this second card too, I got them at the Quilt show a week ago, hooray for breaking open the packet already {patting self on back}.
I think the 2 little Elephants on Stampin Up's "Baby Steps" stamp are just gorgeous! I saw a card on splitcoast where someone had stamped a second tiny elephant behind the Mummy elephant by inking up just the baby with a marker, and they had made a "Twins" card, oh so sweet! So you can see I had the pink swirly embossed card out on my desk, cos I've used it on all the girl cards! LOL! And I went about making duplicate cards again too, but this time I used different stamps or embellishments to make them look a tiny bit different, even if the LO was the same.
Fox and Friends is definitely one of my fave sets for children, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed with the baby sets that are in the current SU catalogue. I really have to stretch my imagination to keep coming up with cute cards using the limited sets! Hopefully in the new catty which is out Sep 1, there will be more to choose from!
And I am currently still working on boy cards, but here are a couple I did yesterday! I had to use a Kaisercraft mini stamp set for this one {wink!} I do love that plane though, its so cute for boys! And the "Little Man" sentiment which I love is from the same set, and sometimes I call Jaimeson that too, so it's even more special to me :) I did a red plane card too, and the sentiment on this one is from a Kaisercraft set also. I found the "So cute" ribbon in my stash, I had totally forgotten about it! I think maybe I should do a NY resolution for ribbons next year! Hahaha! But I LOVE ribbon! Nah, I think I'll just stick with papers, its hard enough to reach that resolution!
And one more boy card, also using Fox and Friends. The whale is soooo cute (ok, obviously today I think everything is soooo cute!) But he really is cute cos he has a tiny heart coming out of his water spout! The whale makes a good boy card I think, and there's my fave sentiment again! The zig zag edge is doing using a Martha Steward punch. I love punches, especially edgers and label shapes, they add a little extra "zing" to my cards!
And for Monday, here is your pic of Jaimeson! I LOVE it when he purses his lips and makes a tiny tiny "O"! This isn't even the smallest O he can make, sometimes its just so tiny that it make me laugh out loud! Its especially amazing seeing as he has a wide smile. How do you go from wide smile to tiny O?! Love it!
:) C

Something soft for the girls...

Isn't this Elephant stamp just the sweetest?? It's from the current Mini Catalogue and I just LOVE it! I am always in need of baby cards in my box so was inspired to use this stamp along with some soft pink and cream paper I got in a pack at BigW. It went really well with the bright Regal Rose pink from SU and Pretty in Pink ink. Also, it's time for me to use through my massive stash of ribbons! I love ribbon, but honestly I could make the most creative "Mummy" costume if I ever have a halloween party again, I have enough ribbon to wrap everyone in this house in a Mummy costume! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm going to stop buying it, I'm just going to start using it on more and more things! I have already begun using it on more scrapbooking LO's which is fun! This pink organza ribbon is one of the first that I bought for card making and I think it really suits the softness of this stamp and paper. And as usual I made 2 similar cards at once, changing the second one up a little so that it has pretty soft pink paper flowers and jewels and a different PP accent as well.
It's time to get downstairs and start creating again!
:) C