Cuttlebug Spa Weekend

The Cuttlebug Challenges Blog is having a Spa Weekend this coming weekend with lots of wonderful prizes, blog hops and a heap of other great things to see and do. See the flyer for the details and this post over at Cuttlebug Challenges.

Card Patterns Sketch #12

Card Patterns sketch #12 was a very simple design, so I made a very quick card for it. The base card is Stampin' Up Kraft card, the teal layers are Bazzil card, Basic Grey PP, Prima flowers and the teal ones are punched. I used Core'dinations cardstock under the flowers and ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swirls embossing folder and sanded back to reveal the core colour.

I distressed the edges and sewed around the PP layer, also used Stampin' Up greeting from the Yummy set, Kaiser rhinestones, Fiskars Water Threading Punch and Stampin' Up window punch.

Thanks for looking!

Basic Grey Challenge.

This card is for this week's Basic Grey Challenge - Challenge #32 Christine's Sketch. My Basic Grey product used is the Periphery designer paper.

Cardstock is by Stampin' Up, the bird stamp is also from the Stampin' Up 'Friends 24-7' set, the greeting is by Flourishes.

Other products used: velvet loopy ribbon, wooden flowers, brads, Colorbox dark brown chalk ink and Nestabilities squares and scalloped squares.

It's been another cold day here with lots of rain.........brrr! A good day for staying indoors and creating!

Cuttlebug Challenge

This is a card I've done for Cuttlebug Challenges Fab Friday, which was a sketch challenge. I used a Stamp-It stamp called 'Flock background', stamped it with Versamark, used SU's Heat and Stick powder, then added blue glitter. The greeting stamp is also by Stamp-It.

I've also used Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder and Christina Re paper.

Hope you are having a nice weekend........Winter seems to have hit us here in Melbourne, it's very cold and chilly today!

Anzac Day

Today is ANZAC day here in Australia, April 25 marks the anniversary of the 1st major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli during WWI.........thousands lost their lives!

I don't know if any of my ancestors were at Gallipoli, but I will tell you the story of 2 brothers, Ben and Vincent, they were younger brothers of my great grandmother. Ben, the older of the 2 went off to war first and was soon followed by Vincent. I have a letter that was written by Vincent to my great grandmother in Jan 1917, he had just gone over to France to fight on the frontline..........3 short months later he was killed at the battle of Bullecourt. His body was never recovered, he is in a mass grave somewhere in France and commemorated on the Villers-Bretoneaux Memorial in France. The battle of Bullecourt, like Gallipoli, was one that could not succeed, the men were pretty much sacrificed for no gain. Vincent was just 19 years old!

Even though it was about the Vietnam War, this song by RedGum "I was only 19" reminds me of Vincent and how young and vulnerable our soldiers were, and are today. The song just gives me chills when I hear it!


Ben's story is probably more tragic, he survived the war, but had terrible shrapnel wounds that caused him continual pain. On Boxing Day 1938 he went out into the fields with a shotgun and killed himself. If the proper resources had been available to him back then, he would have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and treated for it....sadly there was nothing available to him then. This was never spoken about in the family, I only found out when I was researching my family history. I managed to get a copy of his inquest and it even had a copy of his suicide note in it.

I'm sad that war can do such terrible things to families and that I never got to know either of these men. It's possible that if they hadn't gone to war they would've still been alive after I was born...my great grandmother lived until I was 21 yrs old, and she was older than both her brothers.

Lest We Forget.

Card Patterns Sketch #11

I've used another of my new stamps to do this card for Card Patterns Sketch #11. I like this happy, fun clown image, it's just right for a child's birthday card! It's by Stamp-It, an Aussie company.

I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits to blend the colour, two different Cuttlebug folders to emboss the cardstock and added some royal blue grosgrain ribbon and a red button, to match the clown's nose, to finish off.

Hope you like my card, thanks for visiting today!

Papertake Weekly Challenge.

I've had a heap of new rubber delivered this week so I used my new Stampin' Up - Upsy Daisy set for this card for Papertake Weekly's Dawny's Sketch #13 - I turned the sketch upside down. I've been really hanging out to get the new In Colours too.......I lurve Baja Breeze!

I was looking for some ribbon to put on the card and discovered this gorgeous piece of lace was a great match for the Baja Breeze cardstock! I added a piece of thin chocolate coloured satin ribbon over the top edge of the lace.

All cardstock is Stampin' Up, used Baja Breeze ink over the cuttlebugged background piece, the daisies are stamped with Color Box dark brown chalk ink.

Hope you are all having a great day.......it's a beautiful Autumn day here in Melbourne, lovely and sunny!

OSA Sketch Layout #16

This is my card for the OSA Sketch Layout #16.

The stamp is by About Art Accents, I've coloured it with Prismacolor pencils and used Odorless Mineral Spirits and paper stumps to blend the colour.

The paper is from the SEI Poppy 6 x 6 pad and I've added a gold peel-off. The kanji is the symbol for Beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by today!

New look!

I thought it was time for a change here, so I've uploaded a new blog template from The Background Fairy!

I'm not sure if I'll leave this one or try another one.....I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Inkurable Stampers April Challenge.

Well, I'm back as promised with a new card to share with you, this is what I've created for April's Inkurable Stampers Challenge. The theme for April is to only use the colours of orange, black and white, and to use at least one stamp. I really like orange and black as a combination and it wasn't hard to add some white to it.

I started with a plain white folded card, then added a black layer which I stamped and embossed with the large Canvas background stamp by Stampin' Up - I used black embossing powder and Versamark ink.

For my orange background layer, I used a piece of watercolour paper and just slathered on some Ginger Peach and Spiced Pumpkin Twinkling H2O's. When that was dry I stamped the silhouette flower stem (from a clear U/M set by Christina Re) onto it with black Versafine ink and heat set it. I added a row of white scallops to the right hand side, adhered the panel to the black background, added the black and white polka dot ribbon and button, then sewed around the orange panel with black thread. I also added black brads to the corners, white pearls to the flower centres and a small white tag, stamped with a Stampin' Up greeting, tied with a black ribbon and popped up on dimensional squares.

That's all folks! Thanks again for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think of my card!

Easter and some RAK's received.

I hope everyone had a better Easter than I had. It was going well until Saturday night when my DD rang and asked if I could babysit Annika as both she and her DH had been sick with a virus all day. I was feeling a bit tired after our trip up to Bendigo to see Dad for Easter, but I said I would love to take care of her.

Of course, later that night I got sick too! I had to ring DD the next morning and get her to come and pick up Annika again.......luckily she was feeling better after a good night's sleep. I spent the rest of Easter feeling pretty crappy, lucky we hadn't planned anything for our wedding anniversary on Easter Monday either. DH did actually remember it though and gave me a card........he even cooked dinner that night, which is quite rare these days, although I wasn't very hungry! BTW, he liked the card I made him too, LOL!

Sorry, nothing new from me today, but here are a couple of RAKs sent to me recently by 2 friends (that I've been very remiss in not posting here yet!)

The first is a belated birthday card sent to me by Vicky (My Paper Palace), I love the vintage look of her card and the colours are so pretty! Vicky also included some ribbons and lovely washi paper as well!


The 2nd item is from my OSA friend Linda I, who was given the honour of being chosen as the March SAM (Stamp Artist of the Month) by the OSA members. Linda gave us a project tutorial for a lovely clay stamped pin and she very generously sent out lots of them to various OSA members......including lucky me!

Well, that's it from me for tonight! I promise I will have something to post tomorrow, I just need to do some finishing touches and take a photo.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Candy Alert!!

Vicki has not one, but two blog candy prizes on offer at Stamped Smiles. Make sure you have a look at some of Vicki's amazing artwork while you're there! You have until April 18th to enter.

Happy Easter!

I'd just like to wish all my blog readers a Happy Easter! I hope you are able to spend some time with your family over the holiday. I'm going to visit my Dad tomorrow and will catch up with my daughters and family on Sunday.

I've made two Easter cards today, the 1st one is for Papertake Weekly - Dawny's Sketch #12.

The 2nd card is for CPS 110

I used Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6 x 6 papers for both cards.

Thanks for visiting today!

Card Patterns Sketch #9

I've done this card for the sketch challenge #9 at Card Patterns blog. I chose an Oriental theme.



I used a new technique called Newsprint Reveal from the latest April/May issue of The Technique Junkies Newsletter. I put my own twist on the technique by using a page from a Chinese book instead of newspaper.

My silhouette stamp is from the Stonehouse Stamps Oriental Plate 10 and the 'Esteem' definition is from the Leave Memories 'Japanese Lessons' stamp plate. I've added thin red satin ribbon, a red flower gem, cherry blossom washi paper and I raised the definition on dimensional squares.

Thanks for dropping by my blog today!

Inkurable Stampers birthday celebrations!

April 1 was the 1st anniversary for the Inkurable Stampers blog and Sarah has been celebrating with fun, games and challenges since Friday!

The 1st card here is what I did for Challenge 1 - "Your challenge is to create a birthday card using this card sketch from Pagemaps as inspiration:"



I decided to make a birthday card for my Dad, who turns 80 in a few months time. I stamped one of the stamps from Inque Boutique Story Boards set onto a piece of acrylic and layered this over Basic Grey and Kaisercraft papers and chocolate coloured Bazzil cardstock. The swirl stamp in the bottom left side is also from the Story Boards stamp set, the 'Birthday Wishes' greeting is by Stampin' Up and 'celebrate' is a clear stamp by Clear Expressions.

Other supplies used: Thickers foam numbers, Tattered Angels Bronze Glimmer Mist, thin brown satin ribbon, Kaiser rhinestones and some brass coloured brads. I used a Fiskars template to trace the decorative design onto the unknown brand word patterned paper and inked the edges with black distress ink.

This is Challenge 2 - "Your challenge is to create something (anything!) using 5 DIFFERENT STAMPS!"

I've made a child's birthday card. My background paper is made using the Bingo Blast technique from the latest Technique Junkie Newsletter . I thought it would make a perfect background for the Sassafras Lass rocket ship stamp. I used a Dymo labeller to make the greeting.

My 5 stamps used for the challenge are:- Sassafras Lass rocket ship, 3 different arrow stamps from Inque Boutique "Every Which Way" stamp set and the tiny star is from a Stampendous "Fluffles" clear unmounted set.

I hope I didn't break the rules by using the tiny star stamp 3 times, but it looked funny with only one star!

OK, here's the last challenge, Challenge 3 - "Your challenge is to create a TWINCHIE!!", also it had to be photographed on my hand!

FYI, a twinchie is a 2" x 2" piece of art. I finally found a use for the bag of Stampboard pieces that I've had in my stash for ever and not used yet! My background is made with Vintage Pink and Bronze Tattered Angels Glimmer mist, then I stamped on the Cornish Heritage Farms - Gum Tulips stamp with black StazOn ink. When the ink was dry I used the Stampboard scratching tool to create the white highlight lines in the stamped image, then added a Collections word. You probably can't see it, but I edged the whole piece with a gold Krylon pen.

OK, that's all folks! Thanks for visiting my blog, and I'd love to see your comments on what I've made today!