Celebrate!

Hi everyone, I haven't quite disappeared off the face of the earth, but it has been quite a while since my last post! It's been quite a stressful few weeks for me, the results from my latest CT scan showed up "something" which my oncologist was convinced was a new cancer. He sent me for a PET scan just to make sure and after a nervous wait, the results showed that it wasn't cancer at all!! You can't begin to know the relief I felt hearing that news! They're still not sure what it is that showed on the CT scan, so the scan will be repeated in around 5 weeks time. Comparisons with this PET scan and the one I had done last year also showed a reduction in the size of the nodal cancer that showed in the first scan.......which means the chemo is doing it's job, thank goodness!

Needless to say my creative mojo had gone out the window so it's taken me this long to finally come up with a new card. I've used the sketch from Annabelle Stamps Blog and the theme from The Pink Elephant Blog - Childhood.

I just had to use this digital image, a freebie from Mo's Digital Pencil, as it shows exactly how I felt when I got the report from my PET scan! The image is coloured with Copic Markers, the background is done lightly with chalk as I don't have an airbrush system for Copics. The greeting is from a Fiskars clear stamp set. Also used Kaisercraft rhinestones, Bazzil cardstock, Nestabilities and Heidi Grace patterned paper.

Hopefully I can catch up on my blog comments over the next few days. I haven't been on the computer much lately as finally we've had some Spring weather and I've been doing a little Spring Cleaning, which didn't get done last year as I was recovering from surgery, and some tidying up in the garden. Hopefully we will be growing more of our own vegies this year as I'm trying to eat more organic foods now and prices are about double if you buy organic from the supermarkets!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!

Simply Silhouetted!

Hi everyone, this card is for Andrea's Stampin' Moments Simply Saturday challenge - Simply Silhouetted. I really love silhouette stamps, you don't really have to do a lot to them, just stamp it on a nice background, add a little bling and there you go!

My stamp is by Hero Arts, the greeting is from Stamp-It. I just stamped the flowers onto some patterned paper.......I have no idea who the maker is as I only have a few scraps left, wish I had some more really! I added a colour lift with some red gingham ribbon. Not sure if this is a true CAS card as it has a few layers, but it was pretty easy to make. Hope you like it!

Just on a personal note, it is an anniversary of sorts today for me. Not one that you'd want though, it's one year today since I was diagnosed with cancer. It hasn't been a great year, but, the good thing is that I'm still here to talk about it.........and I'm not planning to go anytime soon either!

Happy Father's Day!

It's a bit late as Father's Day was yesterday, but here's the card I made for my Dad! I would've posted this yesterday, but because of some wild weather here our power went out for most of the day......thank goodness it came back on before it got dark. I managed to get some much needed work done in my garden instead, at least it wasn't raining most of the day! Maybe we'll get some Spring weather soon......pleeease!

I've entered this card in the Copic Oz blog challenge #2. - I'ts All About Men! My image is by Penny Black and I've coloured it with Copic Markers, of course! The greeting is also by Penny Black, the cardstock is Stampin' Up Kraft and retired Cranberry Crisp. The Kaisercraft Patterned Paper are just some scraps from other projects that were sitting on my desk, I didn't even trim them, just added some ink to the edges. Also used some Nestabilities Circles and Labels dies and some stick-on letters for the 'Dad' word.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope you are having a great day!

Another one!

Here's another card I made using the same Christina Re flocked damask paper as yesterday's card, hope you like it! This is a last minute card for Andrea's Simply Saturday challenge - Simply Square.


The stamps are by Kaisercraft - flourish, which I embossed with black EP, and the sentiment is by FireCracker Designs. Speaking of FireCracker Designs, my lovely blogging friend Vicki very generously donated the above stamp and ALL her FireCracker Design stamps to me - I'm talking a very BIG box of stamps!! Vicki is now a Stampin' Up demo and no longer has a need for these ones. Thanks so much Vicki, you are so kind!

Elegant Dad.

Hi everyone, I've been busily making Father's Day cards this week. For this one I used Annabelle Stamps Bling Sketch Challenge, I flipped the sketch for my card.

The design is quite simple, but I've given it a bit of oomph by using some gorgeous flocked paper by Christina Re and some fancy Nestabilities dies. I used a Stamp-It greeting, the damask stamp is from Stampin' Up's 'Friends 24/7' set. I added some of Annabelle Stamps 'Sprinkles', some black brads and olive satin ribbon. Cardstock is Stampin' Up Old Olive and Pedigree Paper black.

Dad card.

Father's Day is creeping up fast here in Australia, it's only a couple of weeks away now, so time to make a few cards for the occasion. I used Papertake Weekly's Sketch #46 for my card.

I used a stamp from the Stampin' Up set 'Seaside Sketches' and water-coloured it using Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I kept going with the distressed look and used some grungy looking Basic Grey DP, distressed on the edges. The striped DP is by Kaisercraft, added some chocolate brads and some alpha stickers.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

Blog Candy at Andrea's Stampin' Moments.

Check out the fabulous blog candy that Andrea is offering for her 3rd Blogoversary! Andrea also is the owner of the wonderful Annabelle Stamps online store and these goodies come from her own embellishments and stamp lines. Find out how to enter HERE! Good luck!

Wishful Thinking!

Hi everyone! As I sit here typing my post the weather outside is cold, windy and raining......a downright miserable day! My wishful thinking is that I can't wait for some warmer weather, like in the subject of my card today!


My card is for this month's Inkurable Stampers challenge - the theme is RESIST TECHNIQUES. I've used a resist technique on the greeting, waves, surfboard and the beach chair in my card. I stamped the images with Versamark ink, embossed them with white embossing powder, then sponged Distress Inks over the images and wiped the excess ink from the embossed areas.

For the sky area I smooshed some Distress Ink over my craft mat, spritzed it with water then used a damp sea sponge to apply the ink to my white cardstock. The sand is made by tearing some strips of watercolour paper, applying some Windsor and Newton Sand Texture Gel, then painting over this when dry with some acrylic paints. Once that had dried I spritzed some Bronze Glimmer Mist over the pieces and assembled them using some dimensional dots in places so I could tuck the other elements into my 'sand'. The palm tree is stamped with Memento black ink, coloured with Copic Markers and cut out and raised on dimensional dots.

My stamps used are :-
Inque Boutique 'Cabana' - Waves and surfboard.
Viva Las Vegas - Beach chair.
Stampendous - Palm tree.
Paper Xtra (Sullivans) - Greetings.
Other supplies:- Blue Bazzil cardstock, Kaisercraft DP, black marker, Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

This is the inside of the card, I used some Kaisercraft DP. The card is for my nephew's birthday so I made a little pocket with the striped paper so I can tuck a little cash inside.

If you'd like to enter this challenge you have until the end of the month to send in your entry.......for once I got mine done in plenty of time! Sarah has great prizes on offer each month for Aussie and international winners, and there is also a Newbie prize for the best Aussie first time entry.

Hope you are having a great day, and that your weather is better than here today!

More Christmas in July cards.

OK, I know it's now August but here are a couple more cards I've done for Sandie's Christmas in July challenges. Sandie has extended the finish time to August 23rd, although I don't think I'll get them all done at least I'm getting a few more cards in my Christmas stash!


This first card is for Day 5, a sketch challenge. The tree is actually a rub-on with a sticky surface, the pack came with some foil papers to rub over the sticky surface but I thought I'd try some glitter on this one. The glitter seems to have stuck OK. The red PP is by AED and the green holly PP is some really old Stampendous, thought I'd better use it up. The greeting is from a Stampin' Up set.

The 2nd card is for Day 6 challenge - "tearing or torn". I used a Crafty Individuals vintage Santa image.......do you recognize this Sandie, LOL! I used a Technique Junkies technique from the Dec 2008/Jan 2009 Newsletter called Torn Frames for the frame around the image. The PP is by Kaisercraft and the greeting is from Darkroom Doors Yuletide Vol 2 set. I wasn't going to add any other embellishment, but I found this green braid that was a perfect colour match to the Stampin' Up Mellow Moss cardstock that I used for the Torn Frames technique! The frayed edges of the braid also complemented the torn frame quite well. The card base is Stampin' Up Kraft

Love Bears.

I've been waiting a while for a stamp order to arrive, finally it's here so I've had a play with one of the new stamps! The stamp is from the 'Forever Friends' range from DoCrafts in the UK, I've been coveting these for a while and at last they're available here in Australia!

I've used this week's Bling Challenge from Annabelle Stamps Blog, a nice and easy sketch this week. It's also prize week at Annabelle Stamps, you have until Friday next week to get your entry in.

I coloured my cute bears with Copic Markers, hopefully I'm getting a little better at shading the colours. The Designer Papers are from a Heidi Grace pack, I've added some hot pink jumbo ric-rac, a button and the bling is some Rose Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps.

Just on a personal note, I've been having some side-effects from my chemo tablets ie. dry skin on my hands and feet, which turned into really red, sore feet...felt like I had blisters! The problem is easy fixed with lots of moisturizer, but I ended up straining a tendon in my right foot while applying it.....ouch! It swelled up and I've been hobbling around for the past week. I can't do much about it except rest it, so I'm a bit annoyed that I can't go for my daily walk or practice my Tai Chi at the moment. Our poor doggie, Daisy also had to go the vet's for surgery to remove 2 large mammary tumours. We were a bit worried as she is getting on in years and thought she might not survive the anaesthetic, but she has coped remarkably well and seems to be well on the mend!

OK, that's it from me, hope you like my card today and thanks for stopping by.