Very Sad News Regarding Lyn Smith

It is with Immense sadness, that I inform all of Lyn's blog followers (my mum) that she passed away on Friday the 24th of August, 2012.  She had been battling cancer for the past 3 years.
I had been trying to get into mums emails / blogs for a few days.  Mum went down hill all of a sudden. 
Her funeral will be 2pm Tuesday the 4th of September 2012 at Abbey funerals 238 Settlement Road, Thomastown Victoria.  Australia.  In lieu of flowers, there will be donation envelopes for the day oncology unit at The Northern Hospital, present at mums funeral.

Any calls or emails can be directed to Greg Smith (Lyn's huband) on 0394344470
Greg's email:  zacs56@optushome.com.au
or Joanne Williams (daughter) smithjol@optushome.com.au   Joanne's mobile 0403861720.
We thank you so much for being part of mums life and following her lovely blogs over the years.

Yours sincerely Joanne Williams.

Birthday Bear!

Hi there, I'm still not into a regular pattern of posting again, sorry! I'm still lacking in energy and creative mojo at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon as I only have one more chemo cycle to go and then I get a rest from it for a while - how long for I have no idea, it just depends how my CT scans go. I'm hoping it will be for a long break!

 Anyway, here's a card I've made using this week's sketch from Annabelle Stamps.

The stamp is a Forever Friends bear image, I've coloured it with Prismacolor Pencils and  blended with Zest-It. The greeting and the lime Sprinkles and the die I've used for the image are from Annabelle Stamps, PP is from Kaisercraft and cardstock and ribbon is Stampin' Up Purely Pomegranate.

That's it for today, hope you like it!

Finally something to post!

I can't believe I haven't had anything to post for so long, I've just not had too much energy for anything much lately, plus my chemo side-effects are really making my hands so cold that I have to wear gloves most of the time - made even worse by our colder weather here! Finally though, I've managed to have some crafty time and made two cards!

This one uses a Stamp-It dress image which was just crying out to be paper-pieced! I used some papers from Kaisercraft's Madame Boutique paper pad, I just love these colours! Finished it off with a bit of chocolate satin ribbon, some flowers and a chocolate 'Sprinkle' by Annabelle Stamps, the base card is Stampin' Up and the greeting by Sparkle N Sprinkle.

I used this week's sketch FTL195 from Clean & Simple blog and the theme from Annabelle Stamps - Say It With...... Paper Piecing.

My second card is fairly simple, I used some printed vellum as my background, die-cut a Cheery Lynn butterfly from the same vellum, dry embossed some black cardstock with an Asian design Cuttlebug folder, used a greeting by Vicky Enkoff and added a bit of bling with an Annabelle Stamps 'Sprinkle"

I'm entering this card for CAS-ual Fridays Clear as Day challenge and Less Is More challenge - Something Shiny.

Thanks for stopping by today and hopefully I'll be back soon with something new!

Dad's Birthday card.

Hi there, apologies for being MIA lately, my brother and nephew were staying with us last week so I had a great time with them here. This week is chemo week, so not feeling the best right now. I needed to make a card for my Dad's birthday, which is tomorrow, so here 'tis! I've used this weeks sketch ABSC #050 from the Annabelle Stamps Blog.

I'm also entering this card for Stamp Smiles - Fathers Day/Graduation or Masculine card.

There's not a whole lot of stamping here, but the one's I have used are from Annabelle Stamps 'All Things Grow' set and I used a background stamp for stamping into the Opals (UTEE) on the bird's wing. I keep forgetting that I have a whole lot  of chipboard shapes, so I fished out this bird one by Collections that I've had for ages, and covered it with Opals (UTEE). The papers are from a 6 x 6 Crate Paper pad, the branch is a die-cut by Memory Box and the bling is from Annabelle Stamps

Thanks for stopping by today, hope your day is going well!

Happy Mothers Day....a little late!

I hope all the Mothers out there in blogland had a wonderful Mothers Day on Sunday! My hubby took me out for breakfast and my girls and grandchildren came over with some lovely flowers and goodies after lunch, so I had a great day here!

 This is the card I made for my daughter Joanne, I used a new stamp by Whimsy Stamps from the Wee Stamps range by Sylvia Zet, called Bird Swing, isn't it just so sweet! I coloured the image with Whispers Markers and a blending pen. The greeting is by Annabelle Stamps, DP by Kaisercraft and the turquoise layer is Bazzil cardstock, I used a Nestabilies die to cut out my image and greeting.

I'm entering this card for CAS-ual Fridays CFC52 Feathered Friends challenge. Hope you like it!

Groovy Gingham Baby!

Hi there! Here's a card I've created for Moxie Fab World's Gingham Challenge. I used a Stamping Bella image, she has a bit of a '70's feel with her flared trousers, hence my title!

I stamped the gingham design using Annabelle Stamps Background By Design 7 borders using Distress inks and paper pieced them onto the Stamping Bella image. I coloured the rest of her with Copic Markers and sponged the background with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I stamped the background for the card with the larger gingham border from the same Annabelle Stamp set on the diagonal. The pink layer is just white cardstock sponged with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.

So, who is the recipient of this card? Well here's a snippet of news I haven't shared here yet! My daughter Hayley is pregnant, yes more grandbabies on the way! Yes, I did say grandbabies.......she is having twins!! She is into the 2nd trimester and so far so good! She and her hubby have chosen not to know the sex of the babies, so it will be a surprise for everyone.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you're having a great day!

ps. Just in case you think my punctuation is bad, for some strange reason my full-stops are not showing up in my post, another Blogger anomaly!

Bird card.

I'm back again with another yellow card! I know, I said I don't like yellow, but since I had my Scattered Straw Distress Ink out from yesterday's card I decided to make a card for Less Is More's Week 66 Colour Challenge - Yellow.

I used a solid background stamp with the Scattered Straw ink and overstamped the birds on a branch image (Grace Taylor) with Brilliance Starlite Black ink. I watercoloured the flowers with some more Scattered Straw ink just to accentuate them a little. The Stamp-It greeting uses the same Starlite Black ink.

I'm also entering this card for The Pink Elephant - TPE #147 All About Mom
and
Critter Sketch Challenge #114 - Mom


Thanks for stopping by today!

A flower for you!

Hi there, here's a card I made for Annabelle Stamps 'Say It In..........Kraft, Lemon and White' Challenge. I've said it before, I'm not a big fan of using yellow tones - I used Scattered Straw Distress Ink, which is more of a yellow/orangey tone and kept it to a minimum LOL!

I used the faux silk technique for my main images, stamping the Annabelle Stamps Fanciful Flowers images with Stampin' Up white ink onto kraft coloured tissue paper - which I received as the wrapping with my last order to Annabelle Stamps - recycling at it's best, thanks Andrea!

The greeting is from Annabelle Stamps Flowers For You stamp set, I've stamped it onto a Cuttlebug tag die-cut and threaded some twine through it and added some Kaisercraft half pearls. That's it, nice and simple!

I'm also entering this card for CAS-ual Fridays CFC51 Birthday Challenge.

CAS flowers

Hi there, I had a bit of creative time this week and used one of the sketches from Less is More blog and the theme from CAS-ual Fridays blog (CFC50: Spring is here so show us your Clean And Simple creations with flowers or trees) to create a set of flower cards. I had already stamped the flowers from the Hero Arts set Peeking Posies onto some watercolour paper so they were sitting on my desk ready to use.

I water-coloured this first one with Tim Holtz distress inks, the greeting is from Annabelle Stamps Fanciful Flowers stamp set.

This one is water-coloured with Francheville watercolour pencils, greeting is by Stamp-It.

This one and the following one are coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits, both greetings are by Stamp-It.

It's a very cold and wet day here in Melbourne today, a good day for staying indoors with the heating on! For those interested in my CT scan results, they were kind of mixed, there are indications that the chemo is having an effect on some of my cancerous nodes, but a large node has continued to grow - not great news as it may indicate a resistance to the chemo. At this stage my oncologist wants to continue as is and do a repeat CT scan in 6 weeks time.

Thanks for visiting today and I'd love to read your comments on my cards!

ps. Did you notice I've changed my blog template again, I was getting a bit tired of the last one!

Mojo Monday Sketch 238

I liked this week's sketch from Mojo Monday and decided to play along!

The butterfly stamp is from Darkroom Door, I stamped it on watercolour paper and watercoloured it with Twinkling H2O's, then fussy cut it out. The swirly vine die is a new acquisition from Fancy That and the Design Papers are from Kaisercraft's Madame Boutique 6 1/2" and 6 1/2" pad. The greeting is by Stamp-It, rhinestones by Kaisercraft and also used Nestabilities dies and a Stampin' Up oval scallop punch.

Just a quick update on my chemo - I've hit the halfway mark of this course and had a CT scan last Monday, I get the results when I see my Oncologist this coming Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the chemo is doing it's job!