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!

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.

Ribbon Flower card.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and what happens....Blogger changes everything, AGAIN! Do they keep doing this just to annoy us? Well, I hope I can figure out the changes without too many dramas! Anyhoo, I've finally made a card to show here! I just don't seem to have enough crafting time lately, or else my inspiration just goes MIA when I do have the time! I've made my card for this week's Annabelle Stamps challenge - Say it with a Background.

I've used a diamond patterned background stamp from Annabelle Stamps Background by Design 3 stamp set for the background on my cream card, stamped with TH Old Paper Distress Ink. The gingham pattern background stamp is from Annabelle Stamps Background by Design 7 stamp set - I used Stampin' Up Pretty in Pink ink on Pretty in Pink cardstock. The flower stem and greeting is from Annabelle Stamps Fanciful Flowers stamp set. The border punch is Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer, bling is Kaisercraft, all cardstock is Stampin' Up and the ribbon flower is made with pink satin ribbon and I added a vintage button.

Today is Anzac Day here in Australia, a day to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our country.....Lest We Forget.

 I made some Anzac Biscuits today in keeping with tradition, I'd forgotten how nice they are too! Very cold, wet and Wintry weather here today, a good day for staying indoors with the heating on!

Hope you are having a great day today and thanks for your visit!

Blogger seems to be ignoring my formatting....grrr! I hope this looks OK when I post, as the preview doesn't look how I want it to! Hmm, I think I fixed it now, so I'll publish now before it decides to do something else I don't want it to!

Happy Easter!

Hi there, hope you are enjoying the Easter break with your families! I'll be heading down the coast tomorrow to visit my daughter and son-in-law at Torquay, but before we go we'll be going over to visit my other daughter, SIL and the grandkids to give them some Easter goodies!

Here's a couple of Easter cards I've made using more of the Kaisercraft Bubblegum Hills range.

I kind of got bogged down making this one for the grandkids, I wasn't quite sure how to make the banner look right, it sat on my desk half-finished for over a week or two, but I think it came out OK! I used some old Making Memories rub-ons for the letters, the banner is just some strips of PP and I used my Fiskars arrow squeeze punch to get the notch at the end. The grass is made from paper string, just stuck down random lengths and trimmed at the bottom. The Easter eggs are made with a balloon punch.

This was originally going to be for Annabelle Stamps Twine challenge, but I finished it way too late, LOL!

This next card uses Annabelle Stamps current Bling Sketch Challenge - lucky for me this challenge runs for two weeks, so I've made it in time!

Pretty simple card as I was running out of time, only stamp is the greeting (Stampin' Up - All Year Cheer)! The butterfly is a rub-on and I've used some lime Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps for the bling.

What's Cooking!

Hi everyone! It looks like summer has not completely deserted us just yet, it's a glorious day here and getting warmer by the minute!

I had a little creative time yesterday so here's my card!

This week's theme at Annabelle Stamps is Say it With.....Chocolate! Mmm, my favourite food group! I went with a cooking theme as well as the colour chocolate for my card. I couldn't resist using this cute retro lady, one of the first clear stamps I ever bought, by Studio Astarte, a company now sadly no longer as it's owner Stacey Apeitos has passed away. The gingham and grid backgrounds are both stamps from Annabelle Stamps Background by Design 7 stamp set and the oven mitt and greeting are from Justrite Stampers What's Cookin' stamp set.

Other stuff used include Stampin' Up cardstock, some aqua velvet ric rac, Making Memories flower, SEI button, embroidery floss and the staples were coloured with a Copic Marker.

That's all folks! Enjoy your day!

Autumn Leaves

Seems like the summer weather has deserted us, the last few days have been much cooler. With that in mind my card today features an Autumn theme.

My main image is one of Fred Mullet's fabulous Nature Prints stamps. I've stamped it twice, first with Brilliance Starlite Black and then with Brilliance Pearescent Beige - both inks are really shimmery, but you might not be able to see it in the photo. Before I stamped the image I sponged on some Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive Distress Inks. The greeting is from Annabelle Stamps Fanciful Flowers set and it's stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink.

The brown panel is stamped with a background from Annabelle Stamps Background by Design 3 set using the Pearlescent Beige ink again, and the small decal in the middle of each diamond is from the same set and stamped with the Vintage Sepia ink. I used a white folded card and sponged it with Wild Honey Distress ink and used a ribbon to match the colour.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:-

Annabelle Stamps

Clean & Simple FTL 180

I finished my card on Sunday as I had chemo yesterday. I'm feeling not too bad today, I've even managed a short walk on both days - something I haven't been able to do for a while. Nausea is under control with meds, although I think the cooler weather is making some unwanted side effects appear more pronouced - pins and needles in my hands and feet and difficulty in swallowing. My feet are OK now they are nice and warm and I'll put my gloves in if my hands get too cold. Too funny getting stuff out of the fridge - if hubby isn't around I use pot holders, then wait for it to warm up a bit before I handle it! My vision is a little blurred today too, not sure if that's a side effect too, but I hope it doesn't last.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Distressed Flowers

Hi there, I decided to buy myself a birthday present from Annabelle Stamps so here's a couple of quick CAS cards I made using the Fanciful Flowers set and distress inks. BTW, Andrea's service is so good my order was here the next morning.....on my birthday! Love this set, the sentiments are a lovely script font too!

I used the sketch from Clean & Simple blog FTL179 for both cards.

That's it from me, hope you're having a great day!

Notecard Set

I've had these background papers made with Distress Inks using a Technique Junkies Newsletter technique for a while and decided to use them with a Penny Black background stamp to make a set of notecards. I used Brilliance Starlite Black Pearlescent ink for the background stamp and just layered each piece onto a piece of cardstock in a contrasting colour, then added a punchy or die-cut to finish. The finished card measures 3 and 7/8" square and used Pedigree Paper textured white cardstock.

I'm entering these cards for the following challenges :- Annabelle Stamps - Say It With......Background Stamps.

and Less Is More - Week 55 Theme - Punches or Die-Cuts.


That's it for today, gotta go, dinner's almost ready!

40th Birthday Card

Hi everyone, just a quick post today from me. I had my 2nd chemo treatment yesterday and thank goodness my Oncologist juggled my meds - slightly reduced dose plus an extra anti-nausea med. It seems to have worked as I haven't had any bad nausea and no vomiting. Just feeling a little 'blah' and tired.

Here's a card that I made for my son-in-law's 40th birthday a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't got around to posting here yet. A very simple CAS design using a stamp called 'Mosaic Tiles' by an Aussie company, Eclectic Images - I've had this stamp for years and I think this is the first time I've used it! I stamped it used Faded Jeans Distress Ink directly onto a textured cream card base. The greeting is by Stamp-It, stamped using Versafine Black Onyx ink. I painted the raw chipboard numbers with black acrylic paint and adhered over the mosaic background.

I'm entering this card for this week's Annabelle Stamps challenge - Say It With.......Background Stamps.

OK, that's all folks!

With Love

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Well, what a difference a week makes! Last week I couldn't have felt any worse after having chemo, but this is my week off it, thank goodness, and I feel 1000% better! I started to feel a little better by late Saturday, but yesterday I actually felt good....better than I have done in weeks! Not sure if it's the acupuncture I had on Saturday or if it's the chemo doing it's stuff, (it had want to be knocking out the bad guys after how it made me feel!) but I could actually walk pain free yesterday. I still can't walk too freely, but it's a hell of a lot better than I've been doing lately, Hubby and I even went shopping for a little while yesterday without any problems and my back still feels OK this morning too!

Here's a card I made when I started to feel a little better.

Heat embossing is what first got me hooked on stamping, but I got very lazy and just couldn't be bothered doing it for quite a long time. I picked up some nice glittery embossing powder at a craft show last year though and thought I'd give it a go with this card. I heat embossed the heart and the greeting, though you may have to click on the photo to see this properly, it does look nice and glittery in real life though. The background is stamped with a Darkroom Door floral background stamp in Fired Brick Distress Ink, the heart (Stampin' Up) also uses the same ink, the glitter EP is clear. The (Stamp-It) greeting is stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink. I also used a Cheery Lynn doily die, ribbon and buttons from my stash. The twine threaded through the buttons is something that has been hanging around the house for years, it was originally from a kite my kids had when they were little......recycling at it's best, it's fabulous twine too!

I've entered my card in the following challenges:-

Daring Cardmakers - Hearts and Doilies.

Annabelle Stamps - Say it in......Red, black and white.

Clean & Simple - sketch FTL 177

That's it from me, hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Aqua Hearts.

Hi again, I must say that my week has been pretty horrendous so far. My 1st cycle of chemo started on Monday, and the nausea and vomiting has still got a hold of me! I ended up back at the hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday to try and sort out some more anti-nausea meds and a drip to top up my fluid levels..........not nice I can tell you!

Fortunately I got my card finished on the weekend as I sure haven't felt doing anything since then!

I stamped a Hero Arts Aged Background stamp with Versamagic Sea Breeze Ink onto some white cardstock and used a Stampin' Up punch to punch out the 3 hearts. The flower panel uses the same ink - the stamp is a 4 sided Stampington one. Thought it needed a littled lift so I added some aqua half pearls to the flower centres. I scored a line above and underneath the flower panel and added the Vicky Enkoff greeting underneath in Brilliance Starlite Black Pearlescent Ink. The white card is textured by Pedigree Paper and I popped the hearts onto dimensional dots.

My card qualifies for the 2 challenges below :-

Annabelle Stamps - Say it With.......... Hearts.

Less Is More's birthday challenge Week 53 - using the colour Aqua!

Apologies if I cant get around to visiting your blogs this week, today is the first day I've even been able to drag myself out of bed for any length of time. I hope I feel better soon! Thanks for your visit today!

Nearly there!

I've almost finished making my Christmas cards, only one more to go! These cards are for my two daughters and the fun rudolph card is for my 3 year old grand-daughter. She was singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer a few nights ago............so cute!  Luckily I don't need to mail these ones!

I'm linking these cards up to Annabelle Stamps for the 'Say It With......Christmas Cards' challenge.

I still have a few cards that I haven't shown here yet, I'll put them up when I have time.