Birthday Cards (Now the Storm is over...)

I'm Back!! The lightning came on really quick earlier, I didn't even notice there was a storm a'comin until the lightning hit and only 2 secs later there was thunder!! Dad always made sure we unplugged all the electrical stuff during a storm, so Dad you should be proud cos I still unplug it all!

Back to the cards.. When Felicity said I needed more Birthday cards I asked if they should be "Funky" or ... then I hesitated for an opposite of Funky and came up with "Mum-ish". LOL!! Well, at least she and I laughed, Mum was too absorbed in her Free Cell game on the computer to notice my jab. hehehe. I guess to cater for the ladies at the sale I have done some Mum-ish ones. It's not to say I don't like these cards, not at all! I really like this card, even though it seems a bit old fashioned, I like the curly label shape and that BG paper is so antique so I paired it with some Kaiser pearls. Pretty!!

I love this pretty butterfly stamp from the Spring Mini SU catalogue, it's delicate and elegant and made the perfect addition to this blue/pink/brown card! Check out how I hoard all the "negative" shapes from my nestabilites, I'm like a magpie. I stash them away instead of chucking them, no wonder my desk is totally full! But then, they go to good use on cards like this so it's not a waste after all!!

So Fliss, will these cards fit the bill?

:) C

Ebay and Some Scrappin..

Hello!

Are you a fan of my nestabilities dies? YOu know, the Scalloped rectangles I'm always using on cards? We'll I've got an extra set and I'm selling them now on ebay, so if you're interested head over and have a look! At the moment they are only 99c so you could bag a real bargain! The matching plain edge rectangle dies are in a separate auction, check them out too. They can be used with lots of die cut machines like the Cuttlebug (which I use) the Ellison Big Shot, Spellbinder's Wizard etc. I love them and I've had heaps of fun using my set. I want to buy all the different shapes now!!

I searched my blog the other day, looking for the post of this page: I couldn't find it, so I'm posting it again. Sorry if you've already seen it!! I'm kinda sure I did post it at some stage... oh well! Can you believe I'm 27? Nope, me neither! We went to a delicious cafe at Balmain called Bar Contessa for Sunday lunch and hung out chatting for a couple of hours! Check out all my awesome birthday presents! It's tradition for me to lay out all my presents on my bed and take a pic (I remember typing that before, so this page must be posted somewhere?!) It's a really good reminder of when I got what! I wanted to show you the bag that Mum made me, remember the other day at the show I said we ran into the lady who designed and printed the fabric?! Yeah, she was thrilled to see the bag!! I love my top too, shhhhh it's just from BigW, man they have some nice clothes these days! And it cost me only $10 so you can't complain about that!!

:) C

Funky Cards for Funky girlz...

Yay, it's Friday!! Happy days {dancing}. Only 8hrs of the working week to go... oh I can't wait! Got a couple of things on this weekend, a birthday dinner, Tupperware party, Lawn Bowls for another friend's birthday... so should be fun :)

I had the thought to make some "funky" cards, suitable for funky little Misses or teens, cos I've had this ipod paper for ages and hadn't used it yet! When I bought the Prima Owl stamp at the show on Weds I knew I wanted to use it with this paper for some funky chick cards! The Owl is so cute! She has an eye patch that has a tiny Skull and Cross Bones on it!! Lol!! I traced around her with my normal black pen to make her outline stand out more. The grungy Happy Birthday and round star "celebrate" stamps are from a Studio G acrylic packet I got at the show also. The cool fibre I got on a roll from Yvette years ago and have finally broken it out. I really like it! I think you'll see it more and more now, I don't know why I haven't used it before?! Probably cos it was buried on my super neat {wink!} desk! And true to my style I made another one the same, only with different colours and a different PP for the artisan shape. Do you like them?

And then, cos I had the negative of the spotty PP where I had cut out the Artisan shape with my nestabilites die, I was inspired to make another card, this time using my new Stampin Up "Forest Friends" set from the Spring Mini. Oh this set is just so darn cute! I hope to get lots of use out of it!! There are 4 images- deer, tree, rabbit and owl; they are pretty small images though, but I'm sure I'll work out some cute ways of using them! I glittered up some of the tree's leaves and traced around the artisan shape with my glitter jellyroll too. Oh so cute! I might have to keep this one in my personal stash cos I have an idea of who to give it too {shhhhh}.

Have a good end to the week! I hope your Friday isn't too much hard work! (I hope mine isn't too!)

:)C

Wedding Cards

Hi Y'all. I'm throwing off the sick blankets today and Will is taking me into the city for the Aroma Coffee festival that is on today at the Rocks :) I imagine we will be 2 of tens of thousands of people so I hope my sick little body is strong enough to cope!!

Remember I made a whole bunch of pink and brown wedding cards a few weeks ago, well I broke out of the pink wedding card mold to make some Blue and Brown Wedding cards using up almost a whole sheet of leftover 3D stickers from my massive stash {punching air}!! For this first card I also used the SU set Blooming With Happiness and the Hampton Art clear set Forever Wedding with Groovy Guava and Creamy Caramel. I love the bride and groom words and I managed to perfectly position them where I wanted them in relation to the double heart stamp. Success!!

Another one of my fave SU sets for wedding cards is the retired Happiness Always set. I had this rectangular 3D tag which is already dry embossed with leaves on it. "What on earth am I going to do with that?" I thought! Well I fiddled with some bits and pieces on my desk, finally adhering it to a scalloped rectangle I had cut with my Cuttlebug and Nestabilites dies and then embellished it with Prima flowers and some bling in the centres. I was so happy with how it turned out!! The ribbon is actually blue with brown and cream stripes so it goes a bit better IRL than here in the pic (trust me {wink!})

Then of course the Wordsworth stick people had to make an appearance cos i love this wedding set! I stamped the striped BG paper with my Autumn Leaves Flourish stamp, then embellished some of the ends of the swirls with tiny bling jewels. So cute!! The frame with the butterflies is off the same 3D sticker sheet as the other 3D embellishments on the other 2 cards, so happy to have used up that whole sheet!!

I hope you all have a great Sunday also, hoping we can get a car park in the city ok and I don't get too worn out!

:) C

Sweet Baby Cards

Hello!

Quick post, I wanted to show you some cards I made on Wednesday night when I finally got some time to relax! I am so sick of Swine Flu and being run off my feet at work! So I decided I am going to Wollongong tonight and am having a relaxing day out of Sydney tomorrow with Mum and Dad. Sweet :)

The first card I decided to do a different colour scheme than pink! I love pink for girl cards but I thought probably not everyone does! I love the way soft green and purple look together, and these Wordsworth Stick People are just the cutest!

The next card I made using a "negative" of the small nestabilites scallop rectangle die cut that I found hanging around on my desk! I always keep my scraps (hoarder! {sigh}) but now and then they come in very handy for making a sweet card really Pop! The "It's a Girl" is a sticker (pebbles ink I think- ha that rhymes!) and makes for a very quick and easy sentiment for this card!

For the last card I wanted something a bit more modern and in brighter colours so I chose Rose Red cardstock and then a scrap of the cute multi-coloured PP that I've had for DONKEY"S YEARS! Glad to have used that up! I love the big pink brads on the left, the elephant I outlined in my glitter gel pen, hard to see in the pic but IRL it looks really cool!

Well, I'm running off to work (I start in 10mins!!) so have a good weekend!!

:)C

Pink Pretties

I had a wonderfully relaxing and constructive day at home yesterday! As well as the card samples and kits I made up for Fliss's SU Party this arvo, I also made some very much needed baby girl cards for my box. I didn't realise that I only had one left in my box, that's unheard of! So I dug out all my pink scraps, the cute giraffe stamp and I went to work... The giraffe is just so cute, and here he is stamped in Apricol Appeal, which goes so nicely with that EONS old Chatterbox floral paper in the BG. The paper is so sweet and subtle though, so I have kept every little scrap of it. And that's why my scraps stash weighs a couple of kilos! I am a hoarder! (But you already know that {wink!}) So I made 2 cards with the giraffe stamp then realised the remaining card in my box has the giraffe stamp too! D'oh! If anyone doesn't like Giraffe's I'm screwed!

Then I found a panel of the skinny stick people I had stamped out, buried under the monstrosity of paper on my desk and so coloured it up and layered it with pink papers to make the last card. I have a whole bunch of the nestabilities already die cut out of various papers, which is so handy when making cards in limited time! I find it really good for inspiration too, to have a bunch of smaller pieces rather than be faced with a 12x12 sheet and thinking "What to do... hmmm!!" Thats why I keep all my little scraps!

Will and I have an appointment with a Wedding Photographer at their open day in Randwick today. Our first look together at something for the wedding. How exciting! Except I'm sitting here with wet hair, blogging, and he'll be at my door any second. My bad! (Thats for you Fliss, I know you love it {chuckling})

:) C

Sell me your tears Gypsy!

Yes, it really is me!

I finally got to scrap some pics from my Halloween Theme Birthday Party. I had to start with these cos I have about 50 pics of other people in their cool costumes and I have no idea how I am going to choose which ones to put on a page.. or how I am going to fit that many pics on a page even after I cull them!

Yvette, you may recognise the flocked cream paper (that stuff is so delicious to touch!) and the crinkly satin ribbon- thanks so much {hugs}! I love the owl paper too, it is just the cutest, I think Kaisercraft are doing a great job with all their product! I also used my new Labels 1 nestabilitie to do the journalling block (it's the backside of the owl paper actually) and the cool white flourish rub-on is by Hambly Studios.

I loved getting to dress up in this cool outfit (which all came out of my cupboard BTW!!), one of my friends walked straight past me when she arrived cos she didn't recognise me with black hair!

I just went for a 35min walk through the National Park behind my house. It was so beautiful with the Whip birds (my fave bird call!), the grass trees, giant gums, palms and ferns in the hollows and miniature rapids in the creek. You couldn't hear any evidence of the city down there in the gully, it was so so quiet and peaceful. I guess Brownville does have some redeeming factors after all!

:) C

P.S. I'm going to Fliss's for some card making today.. hopefully I'll have some cool ones to post after that!

Some Creative Stuff

This is for you Fliss, for hassling me into posting yesterday! I'll reward you with a card post today :)
I made these cards last week before holidays, but I only took pretty crap photos of them late one night, so I apologise in advance! I uncovered my Bella stamps and coloured a whole bunch to go with this colour scheme. This is my all time fave Bella, I use her all the time (you may have noticed!) She is such a perfect girl and goes with so many sentiments! I'll have to dig out my Coco Chanel phrase again cos that one is the best! I cut out the BG paper with my new Labels 1 Nestabilitie die {love!} for a bit of interest. I am working on using up all my scraps as well as the solid sheets of paper. I am going to have to be totally self controlled on Saturday cos I'm going to Craft Fest at Olympic Park with Mum. Eeek! How will I stop myself buying papers? We'll see ;)

And you know I stick by the rule, "when making one card, make two!" It truly works a charm. And it means if you (are a sucker like me... ahem.. I mean no...) happen to like to keep your cards cos they're so cute, you can give one away and keep one for a little longer, then give it away. This last step is vitally important or you get stuck with a mountain of cards you'll never give up! Kinda like my plasic bag collection... but that's another story. I like to do one blonde and one brunette card. I haven't broken out into doing Bella with purple hair yet! Maybe one day.

And then the final card which I made using the negative of the Labels 1 cut outs from the above cards. Genious! I knew I wanted to use it as a window once cut out so I made sure I cut it down one end of the paper and not right in the middle. I think its quite cool! The shoe is a 3D sticker, but it is so hot! And it reminds me of Alicia, so it must be fashionable ;) {wink!} I love this sentiment, it's from Bella too.

Happy Hump Day of the Week!

:) C

Home Sick Today...

Yeah, I was off work today :( Stupid stomach bug or an unknown gremlin who was pulling out the lining of my stomach with it's sharp fingers.. not sure which one it was, but I was not happy.

It's the most annoying thing to be off work and sick, cos here I am at home with my desk of delightful, luscious goodies just waiting to be picked up and played with.. and here I was with no energy and no inspiration! I spent 5hrs on the net researching craft shops in Tokyo for our trip in May (not a complete waste of a day then!) Then at 5pm Yvette lovingly sent me some inspiration vibes via email {high five} and I sat down at my desk and made this page in about 40mins!

I bought this Pink Paislee paper from 2 peas back in August when our Aussie Dollar was worth a mint (wasn't it like $4000 US dollars or something like that {chuckle}), I am so glad I made a $120 order back then!!), but I realised it's kinda hard to use paper with a giant print already on it! I had a fun and challenging time getting the pic to work with the paper but in the end I am quite happy with how it turned out! It's such a gorgeous pic of Cooper watching the TV, he didn't even flinch when I sat down beside him cos he was so engrossed! I used my new Long Curvy Rectangle nestabilitie for the journal spot (I had a lot to write!) and man the owl on the paper is just super cute! I am 12 papers down in my New Year's Resolution too (although in the corrected goal, after finding some extra papers I had bought, I am really only 1 paper down. D'oh!)

Thanks Yvette for the inspiration, I hope you like the finished product!

:) C

Cooking Up a Storm!!

I may have mentioned in passing once before, that it is my birthday tomorrow {wink!}. And y'all know I'm having a Halloween Party (check the date, yep Jan 31! Unconventionalism is my middle name, or is Danger my middle name? I forget. Anywho....) I decided to make my birthday cake after being inspired by a cake in Martha Stewart Living mag back in October. Thankfully I was able to sell one of my kidneys to pay for the $15.00 price of the magazine from Borders. Damn imported mags!! So tonight I went straight to Woolies after work to buy food for the party and made it home at 7:30. I took stock of myself and the kitchen and at 7:50 began cooking. In just over 2 hours I made 2 Mississippi Mud Cakes (Yvette's delicious recipe {hugs!}), brownies and Almond Roca (a request from my work friends). Needless to say now I am Pooped!! Totally! I think so much butter soaked into my skin that I will just slip and slide into bed tonight!! In total there were 4 pats of butter used in the recipes, whoa!!

I made 2 Mud cakes so that I could trim one about an inch in, layer it on top of the other mud cake and make a "mountain" on which to set up the Cemetary which adorns the top of the cake (buscuits dipped in chocolate for the tombstones and a chocolate stick fence!) Here is the adulterated cake cos I "had to check if it would trim well" (what I really mean is "I wanted to eat some while it was hot!" {delicious!})

Wow, so tired. But it's only 37mins til my birthday, I'm going to stay up damn it!!

The other fun news I have is that these little beauties arrived in the mail on Wednesday...

Hurrah Hurrah!! I have been wanting to get them ever since I saw them back in about September last year they are way way way way cool! Yvette alerted me to them being on a local scrap site (not to be exxposed) for $49 for the small sets and $59 for the big one. I couldn't believe it! I had paid $22 for my first sets!! I bought my first sets off the KISS stall at the Darling Harbour Quilt Fair and Lana the lovely owner had given me a flyer with her email and told me I could email if I ever wanted to buy more Nestabilites. Well, I emailed her and she quoted me the bargain price of $33 each for the small ones and $37 for the big one. WHAT!! Can you believe the difference!! WHOA!! {Happy Dancing Iriquois Indian style}. I had to get them all (and an embossing mat to use with them for $3. Hehe!) I am just so pleased with the price, I mean its a $54 saving!! I recommend everyone buy off her, what a bargain! Her email is here.

So I am a happy girl! Most of the cooking is done for my party and I got New Nestabilites and it's my birthday in under half an hour!

Quick my last wise words as a 26yo: Never play Leapfrog with a Unicorn.

:) C

Blue and Red Boys.

Damn it. Why is my computer desk located in such proximity to the kitchen bin? The wafting aroma is reminding me its time to take the bin out, but its pretty low on my to-do list. I might have to bump it up the list a little if I sit here much longer... it STINKS!! {crinkling nose}. I don't even know what is in there that is so stinky. Anywho, it's gotta go.... Later.

A couple more boy/man cards to share today. I ended up making 5 cards last night, which was pretty cool. The box is quite boosted up now! These cards are really simple, just using scraps out of my bag of little pieces. I like pulling out all the little pieces and seeing what goes together! But man I am a hoarder. I keep the tiniest little bits of paper, like a squirrel preparing for the Armageddon (not just winter!!). Or maybe like the Squirrel on Ice Age. That guys has determination, I like his style. The frame was an experiment when I first got my Nestabilities, I'm so happy to have finally used it and got it off my desk!

This next one is a simple card with a cute little felt present adornment! Love it! I die cut the Scalloped Rectangle out of the Fiskars INk range paper and stuck a cute tiny little silver star on it also. I like "Wishing you the best day ever" as a sentiment. It's how I feel about birthdays! I love them to be special and all about you. Birthdays always were special in my family when we were growing up (and even til now), you open presents in bed, someone makes your bed for you, you get to choose what shaped cake you want and what you want for dinner! Love it! It is the Best Day Ever for me!

The third card I hate. I think I will put it in the box just to see if anyone buys it (then I will eat my words {munch}). I thought I was the only person who didn't like some things they make (and still persist in looking at them and not chucking them in the bin) but I read on a blog yesterday one woman hates almost everything she makes (she said she was her own worst critic!) This made me feel so much better!! I don't usually hate a lot of my work, just now and then. And this is now. I grabbed a whole bunch of small scraps out of my bag and stuck them all together and hoped they worked. What do you think? It doesn't really look toooooo bad IRL, here it's the dog's breakfast. Mock me, if you wish. I can take it. And here, I deserve it! Gross!

P.s. My endocrinologist gave me a smile today (not her usual Stern Librarian look) after my HbA1C (3 monthly average blood sugar level) was down 0.8% which brings me back into the "Adequate control" range. Woo Hoo! {High Five!} Pat me on the back will you... yeah like that... thanks.

:) C

Woo Hoo Friday!

So happy to have no OT today (you may have guessed, I'm at work a lot) cos it's already been a productive day and Oprah's not even on yet {happy dance cos I've still got a little time before work!}. Already today I have made 2 cards and 4 packets of Christmas Food Treats tags for Mum's sale (nothing like cramming at the last minute!) And I plan on doing a little more after I finish my cup of coffee and Banana Walnut Loaf that I made {delicious too, toasted with a little butter! Yum!!}

Here are a couple of cards I made for Felicity's friend who had a combined baby shower for 2 ladies, hence the cards had to be different, but I had only about an hour to make them both! lol. See, I do work well with the last minute cramming!

I love using my cuttlebug to make a plain piece of paper, like the yellow BG, into something really sweet! And the Swiss Dots embossing folder is so perfect for a sweet baby card! Neither of the girls know the sex of their baby so they had to be not pink or blue!

It's Mum's craft sale tomorrow, which is always a fun day! My 3 sisters and I always go to help her out cos it's a garden party afternoon tea also (the kind with lots of delicious cakes and the best china!) and that way Mum gets to socialise a bit more with her friends. It's gonna be especially more fun this year cos Yvette is coming up! We love being all together so I'm really looking forward to it!

:)

C

Craft Show Stash!!

Yep, I shopped :) and got some great stuff, woo hoo!! I managed to blow the budget too, even though there were only 5 or 6 Scrapbooking/Stamping stalls there. Maybe a couple more, but there weren't nearly as many as there usually are and there wasn't much new stuff.

My best find.... the Nestabilities dies that I've been wanting to get to use with my Cuttlebug. Big {Woo Hoo!!} from me (she says while punching the air with one arm)!! I have been wanting to get them from Papertrey, one of my fave stamping companies but they just put up International shipping which makes it SO expensive for shipping. So I was totally wrapped when I found them at the show! You have to buy the collection of 4 sets together, big and small scallops and big and small plains (they don't sell them individually) so if you know anyone who wants a set of scallop rectangles and plain rectangles I'll be selling the extra sets on ebay!

I also went crazy on the lace cardstock. I love the white and pink ones, they're from Creative Imaginations and after using some of Yvette's KI Memories ones I HAD to have some of them too. They were cheap- $2.50 per sheet! Bargain. So you'll be seeing them on pages soon :)

I also love the tiny Lizzie Anne design unmounted stamps down the front, a ballerina and the words to go with her which say "all you need are toe shoes, a tutu and a willing heart". So cute!

So I came home a happy camper, YAY! Only now I have to go to work which means no play til tomorrow. Boo Hoo!

Sorry the pic isn't that great, there is NO light in the loungeroom in winter which really bugs me when I'm home during the day... gotta chop some trees down. Lol.

:) C