The birthdays keep a-coming!

Hi,

It's been a while again. What with spending my days off making cards there is no time to edit & blog them. Also I was sick last week and Mum had an op this week (Hi Mum, MWAH!) so life has been rather busy. I work tonight but woke up early so have been madly loading pics to my computer. This will be a quick post but thought that was better than my usual 'no-post' LOL.

Firstly, Mum's b'dy card. I finally borrowed it from her. The photo is not vey good as I took it tonight, but it gives you the idea. I CASEd it from the fabulous Nancy Riley who unfortunately is taking a break from blogging as her daughter was in an accident. Thoughts and prayers to you Nancy!

This was a labour of love as you know how much I love cutting out (not!). I want a punch for these flowers! Mum likes the colours in the Cottage Garden DSP (as do I, will miss it so much when it retires) so I stuck with that. I love the 'Vintage Vogue' set too, hope it hangs around for the next few years. The sentiment is from 'Well Scripted' a US SU set. I love the Little Leaves Sizzlet die. My Big Shot has been used so much more since we got the SU dies over here :-)

My good friend Ang turned 30 in August and she made me a beautiful card for my birthday. I agonised over her card, wanting something special. Ang seems to make cupcakes for all their occasions and made her 1yo a giant cupcake for her b'day, so went with that for inspiration. I made a Side-step card, based on ones I found on Splitcoast, esp this one which directs you to a great tutorial, and this one.

And this pic shows it more side-on so you can see the 'steps'.

Sorry, the pics have come out a bit dark, problem with quick editing! I am going to miss this Sweet Always DSP, it is especially great for girly cards. Maybe I should order one last pack before it retires (in 9 days!!). I used the lovely 'Crazy for Cupcakes' stamp set & the cupcake wheel. The numbers are chipboard inked in Regal Rose & then liberally covered in glitter. Does anyone else find that they are as sparkly as the project after using this gorgeous glitter??? I added 2 little tags using 'Teeny Tiny Wishes' and the little tag punch. Love these little tags, you can add them to any project.

Anyway, this has turned out rather long for a 'quick' post so I better get moving. Hope you've had a great weekend. I am hopefully getting to catch up with the lovely Lavonne (my US stamp 'dealer' LOL) tomorrow. She is out here visiting her family. It is always wonderful to catch up with her.

Cheers, Fi xox

How can my nephew be turning 16???

Hi again,

As the title suggests, I can not believe my nephew could possibly be that old. Hardly seems any time since he was a baby. He lives in Russia and wants money for his b'day but we are sending over cards (of course!). I made one from Mum & Dad & one from me. I am pretty sure I am safe to post it here before we send it as he's not likely to be perusing my blog LOL.

Firstly the one from the Grandparents:

I took the layout & basic idea from here and the grunged it up a bit and moved the stars around. I love stars for male cards. I finally got 'Wonderful Favourites' when it was on sale earlier this year and it is such a handy set. Perfect for a card from Grandparents. I couldn't use 'favourite' as there are 2 grandsons. I took inspiration for the colours from the 'Sweet Pea' DSP, again sent to me by Lavonne (wow Lavonne, you're a life-saver!!!). While I really love our Aussie DSPs it has been a bit 'light-on' for male papers (the 'Urbans' & 'Windsor Knot' have been the main ones with suitable 'boyish' papers). I really like this stripe from the 'Sweet Pea' papers for guys. I used the fabulous alphabet sizzlits (exclusive to SU) with the 'Big Shot' for the '16' and the 2 star punches. The silver embossed star uses a PTI stamp set that co-ordinates with our star punch. The little stars are from a retired SU set that is too handy to give up. The colours are 'Taken with Teal', 'Pumpkin Pie' & 'Basic Grey'.

Now for the card from me:

I must be honest & say that I was thrilled with how this turned out. I took the layout from a past Inkspirations Sketch challenge, #29 (se below) and inspiration from this fab card by Louise Ryan. I have been meaning to CASE it for ages, but then really liked this layout.

I have once again used SU 'contraband' from the States. I love, love, love these 'Extreme' sets. I think there might be a riot if these don't turn up in our next Catty. There is a large number of demos who have been asking for them for a few years now. They are so good for teen boys. There is the 'Extreme Elements' set used for the background image on the circle, & then individual stamps, this guitarist, a skateboarder, snowboarder, surfer & dirt-bike rider. Who couldn't find a use for at least some of those images????

Anyway, back to the card. I started with 'Night of Navy' CS and stamped it in Silver Encore ink using a retired stamp set (Starring You???). I stamped my background from the 'Extreme Elements' set in 'Night of Navy', 'Pumpkin Pie' & 'Kiwi Kiss' & black embossed the guitarist image over the top. I cut out the image, plus 2 more circles in 'N of N' & KK CS using my 'Circle

Scissors' (with lots of Dotto, that is absolutely essential in getting great circles). I cut two rectangles of CS in KK & PP & distressed the edges using my 'Cutter Kit'. I stamped them with 2 of the 'Extreme Elements' images. The Circle is raised up on Dimensionals. I used yet another contraband stamp from the US set 'Four Square', inked in N of N on Whisper White CS. I loved this stamp for boys cards. (thanks again Lavonne!). I backed it with a square of 'N of N', using my square punches.

Well, that is about it for today. I have a few more cards up my sleeve so hopefully will post a bit more frequently. Thanks for popping by. Must have a cuppa & then face cleaning the bathroom (uugh). Then I'm off to take Dad shopping for Mum's b'day (you never read that Mum, LOL).

Cheers,

Fi xox

My Birthday Invites

Hi Again,

I'm sure I've been mentioning that I turn the dreaded '40' this year. I decided to have a party, who says you can't throw one for yourself?? As soon as I saw the 'Rich Razzleberry' CS I knew it would be the basis of my invites. I also initially planned to use 'Cottage Garden' DSP & the 'F' image from 'Vintage Vogue'. Well, I didn't. I saw this card (the top card) whilst blurfing & loved the simple elegance. I decided to turn it around so I didn't need to add a knot, for the sake of postage. My lovely friend Lavonne sent me the 'ElegantBouquet' embossing folder (by the way, if you're reading this Lavonne, stop now, yours is in the mail).

I used the Big Shot both for the dry embossing & the numbers (Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Sizzlets dies). These dies are so handy, now you can whip up any name or number combo in a flash. I used SU Silver CS for the numbers. I stamped the 'You're Invited' from the 'Sincere Salutations' stamp set using Silver Encore ink & heat embossed with silver powder. Easy but time consuming. I coloured the flower centres with a non-SU silver marker. Gluing the numbers took quite a while but the '2-way Glue pen' is perfect for the job.

And now the inside:

I bought some white shimmer paper & printed the details on my computer. I then stamped the 'Vintage Vogue' small flower in 'Rich Razzleberry' & the leaf in 'Silver Encore'. I actually only did the bottom flower on the rest of the invites as it looked more open. I've edited out the details with iPhoto.

I hope everyone likes them, now to organise the rest of the details.

Thanks for popping by,

Fi x

A quick post

Hi Guys,

My hols are over and I haven't done half of what I planned to do (like clean & organise house, its worse than before my hols!!). So much for the theory that I would blog heaps and enter all the challenges. Been too busy gallivanting out & about, having coffee, dinners out, spending time in Sydney, what a life. Pity work has to interfere with all that but the bills do have to be paid.

Anyway, enough ramble. My cousins had a gorgeous girl, Kaia Jay, this week. I made a card for her, CASEd from this one on Splitcoast. It was very easy & I think it is pretty.

I used a base of Kraft CS, ran 'Very Vanilla' CS through the 'Big Shot' with the Polka Dots embossing folder for the top half, & used 'Sweet Always' DSP for the base. The stamp is from 'Punches Three', very cute. The addition of some' Chocolate Chip' CS, doctored with the ''Scallop Edge' punch, and some Regal Rose ribbon finishes it off. Finally I printed Kaia's name using my computer to personalise it.

Their 2yo son, Byron, is now a big brother, so we sent him a little gift with this notecard attached.

This is a SU notecard, so handy. I inked up the engine stamp from 'Choo Choo' (hope this set makes the next IB&C) with Pacific Point and added black & silver accents. The 'Brother' stamp is from 'Wonderful Favourite', its a shame I didn't have room to add the 'wonderful'. I hope Byron likes getting his own little card in the mail.

Well, must go & think about the 'going to work' process. It is a damp, chilly night, not really conducive to heading out. Oh well.

Catch you soon, I hope,

Fi x

A gift for Sarah-Jane

Hi Guys,

I hope Sarah-Jane doesn't mind but I thought I'd post some pics of the little 'room-mate gift' I made her. Firstly, I wish I'd taken a pic of the lovely 'Convention Survival Pack' that she put together for me. It was perfect, lovely decorated bag (with my fav Vintage Vogue SS) filled with tissues, pen, gorgeous covered (altered) notepad, much needed Panadol Rapid (esp after fire alarm debacle) & mints.

My lovely friend in the US, Lavonne, had very kindly sent me some more goodies, including some of the very yummy Satin Ribbon & 'Pretty in Pink' cord buttons. I made up some little pillow boxes using the Big Shot (so easy) and decorated them in pinks & browns (no-one who knows Sarah will be surprised at the colour choice LOL) and put a few little pieces of ribbon & some buttons inside. I wasn't sure how to package them, and then I realised that the Fancy Favour box/bag will hold three of the pillow boxes perfectly. Light bulb moment!!

Here are the pics:

I was quite chuffed with how the the pillow boxes fit.

Will try & come back & add the recipes later, need to be at a conference at 8am & its 23:15 now, must get to bed.

have a great weekend,

Love Fi x

Keesh's Inspiration Challenge #20

Hi Guys,

Am finally on days off again. My roster is a bit atrocious at the moment, only rostered 2 days off instead of 3 for 2 weeks in a row (1st day is a sleep day, thus only giving 1 full day not at work). However I have found time to make 2 cards recently.

I had to have a go at Keesh's latest challenge. Especially since she pointed out that the inspiration pic challenges get less responses than the sketch or colour challenges. I really rather like them. I'm the sort of crafter who needs inspiration! Here is Keesh's inspiration image:

And here is my attempt:

As soon as I saw the photo I thought of using the 'emboss resist' technique & 'Upsy Daisy'. I clear embossed the 'Upsy Daisy' image onto 'Very Vanilla' CS. I then took my brayer & covered the whole image with 'Chocolate Chip' ink. When that is done, wipe over the image & the embossed image emerges. A great way to get a light coloured image on a dark background. I used my 'Sanded' BG stamp with 'Close to Cocoa' ink on 'CtC' CS. This is to emulate the creased look of the bottom of the doona cover (sometimes I think I am far too literal in these challenges). I added a layer of VV CS, and some 'Chocolate Chip' ribbon, tied through a small vanilla grommet. The greeting, also from the 'Upsy Daisy' stamp set is stamped in CC ink onto a label I made with the new 'Lots of Tags' die for the Big Shot. A simple card but I think it is in keeping with the inspiration.

Thanks for calling in.

Have a great day,

Fi xox