An award!

I recently received an award from the very talented Sue, her blog is A Consuming Passion. Thanks so much Sue! Please go and check out Sue's blog, she does amazing work!


This award is to showcase some of the not-so-well-known blogs. We have some talented crafters out there and this is one way for you to find new and interesting blogs. All I have to do is nominate three to five blogs I read and want others to get to know .


If I tag you and you want to participate, create a post where you post the 'LOVE BLOG' image. You should also blog the persons link that gave you the award and inform her/him that you accept the award. You can then choose 3 - 5 favorite blogs which you also link in your post, then each blogger will inform you that they have been tagged.




Special Note from the Originator:
Dear bloggers:
The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.


I chose 3 that I think deserve more followers than they have, because in my opinion they are very talented and make stunning creations...Please pop over to see their blogs - I promise you will NOT be disappointed.

Carole: Carole's Creative Corner
Vicky: My Paper Palace
Sonya: Pickles Patch

Year of the Rabbit

Happy New Year to all those who celebrate the Chinese New Year which began yesterday, February 3rd. I meant to have this post ready yesterday, but other things got in the way. This is the Year of the Rabbit, people who are born in the Year of the Rabbit are said to be sensitive, cautious and lucky!

I've made a couple of little hanging calendars to mark the occasion. I used the popular Haiku Bunny (AKA Mountain Hare) by Hero Arts, and the papers are by AED (Alison Ellis Designs). The calendars themselves were from a free download which I printed out onto a single sheet of copy paper and cut to a uniform size. If you're wondering how they are held together seeing no staples or brads there, what I did was simply use a line of repositionable adhesive to the top of each month and adhere them all together. I started by adhering down December with permanent adhesive then working through to January by placing the next one on top. I think I used Pritt brand roller and since it's repositionable it doesn't stick fast and they peel off like a Post-It note, so no messy ragged edges when you peel off to the next month.

Other items used:gold eyelets, fibre for hanging, ribbon, white rub-on numbers (Making Memories) and tiny black number stickers.

I've used the challenge from Daring Cardmakers for a card with an Oriental feel or a card with a rabbit. OK, this isn't strictly a card but I'll enter it anyways!

In case you were wondering about how my brother and his family fared during Cyclone Yasi, I had a phone call from him at around midday yesterday to confirm that they were all OK, thank goodness! I'd spent all night worrying about them and hadn't been able to get through myself on the phone as their power was out, but he managed to get through on his mobile. They only had some minor damage to their house and lots of debris littering the yard with his lovely garden in a bit of a mess. They were a bit worried about flooding under the house when high tide occurred as previous cyclones of a milder nature had resulted in up to metre of water, but this time they only had a water-logged backyard. Very lucky!! The main carnage was to the north of Townsville in the smaller towns of Cardwell, Tully and Mission Beach, but luckily most people were evacuated from those towns in plenty of time before the cyclone hit and so far only one life has been lost that we know of anyway, some areas were still unable to be accessed due to flooding over the highway.

It looks like we will be having a very wet weekend down here in Victoria as we will be getting the fallout from the last two cyclones. Some towns are on flood alert again, so fingers crossed they won't get inundated again.

Hope everything is OK in your part of the world, thanks again for visiting here!

Birthday Presents.

Hello to you all today! I'm a little nervous today as Cyclone Yasi, a category 5 cyclone, is about to hit Queensland near where my brother lives in Townsville. I've spoken to him today on the phone and they are all home from work and busy preparing for the onslaught. They were lucky enough to have not been flooded during the recent crisis up there, but there's no escaping this time! It's reportedly the biggest cyclone to hit Queensland EVER, bigger than Cyclone Tracy that destroyed Darwin in the 1970's and bigger than Katrina that hit the US a few years back. Hopefully they won't be in the eye of the storm, but cyclones are pretty unpredictable things. It's due to hit the coast at around 10pm tonight, so it's a nervous wait until then.

My card for today is a fairly simple CAS card using the sketch 125 below from the Clean & Simple Stamping blog.



I used the present stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Birthday Whimsy' set, the greeting is from a Stamp-It sentiment set. This card will be for my Son-in-Law's birthday, so I've used 'manly' colours. The cardstock is Stampin' Up Really Rust, Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa and Chocolate Chip, the white cardstock is by Pedigree Paper. I added a couple of embellishments with the ribbon, which I knotted at one end and stapled to the cardstock and for just a little bling, some Sprinkles from Annabelle Stamps.

I hope everything is well in your part of the world, thanks for visiting today!

Flowers For You!

Today is Australia Day here, so 'Happy Australia Day' to all of my fellow Aussies! Since we're celebrating all things Australian today I've joined in the challenge from Aussie blog AnnaBelle Stamps :- Say It With - Emboss Resist, and I've also used Annabelle Stamps for my card.


I used the tiny flower stamps from Annabelle Stamps 'Helen's Party' set for my emboss resist background. I stamped them with Versamark ink on white cardstock and clear embossed them, then sponged Broken China Distress Ink all over the background.

For my main image, I used the cute 'Lil Molly' from Annabelle Stamps 'Lil Molly's Flowers' set, I also used the sentiment from the same set. I coloured Lil Molly with Copic Markers and cut her out with a Nestabilities Oval die, layered her onto another Nestabilities die. I used the Stampin' Up word window punch for the sentiment. Also used Kaisercraft rhinestones, ribbon and cord, blue cardstock from Pedigree Papers and retired Close to Cocoa from Stampin' Up.

I've also entered this card for Inky Impressions - Emboss It challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Red and White with Ribbons and Pearls!

Hi there, I'm back again with another card to share! First of all, thanks so much for all your supportive comments from yesterday's post, it means a lot to have such caring bloggy friends! I'm so glad I have this blog as I find it very therapeutic making papercraft creations, it takes my mind off everything for a while.

I received some new stamps in the mail a couple of days ago, and for once I've used them straight away! The stamps are from the latest release from AnnaBelle Stamps - All Things Must Grow clear stamp set. I used Impress Poppy Red ink for the images and Versafine Onyx Black for the greeting. I used a Nestabilities die to cut out the image. My background is embossed with a Cuttlebug blossoms folder from the Asian set. Also used Martha Stewart border punch, ribbons from my stash, pearls, red and white cardstock.


I've entered this card in the following challenges:-
AnnaBelle Stamps - Say It In....Red and White.
CPS - sketch #201
Glenda's Random Amusing Challenge #100 - Use red on your card.
Papertake Weekly - Ribbons and/or Pearls.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you are having a lovely day!

Owl card and an update.

Hi everyone, I have a card to show you plus a bit of a personal update. I'll leave the update until the end of the post, so just continue to read on if you'd like to know.

I've used this month's Bling Sketch from AnnaBelle Stamps, ABSC033. I used the owls from AnnaBelle Stamps 'Hooo Loves Christmas' set, which as you can see is not just for Christmas cards. I figure this would make a great Valentine or Anniversary card.

I've also used Kaisercraft DP and chocolate pearls, the greeting is from the same stamp set as the owls. I cut out my owls, then coloured them with Copic Marker and adhered to some layered Nestabilities dies - circles and Blossoms. The heart is coloured, then cut out and layered with a dimensional dot. The greeting is also popped up with dimensional dots.


Well, that's the card now for my update. I had yet another CT scan 2 weeks ago, then got the results from my Oncologist last Monday. The news was not quite what I wanted, but not disastrous by any means. The cancer that I have had all along in my lymph nodes has had a slight increase in size (0.3cm, so they now are 1.3cm). My Oncologist didn't seem too concerned by this as it hasn't spread anywhere else yet, he also said that my particular cancer has not acted the way they thought it would all along. He encouraged me to take another 2 months off chemo before we start again on a new regime, so I have agreed to take this path. I'm a bit disappointed by the CT results, but I'm trying to maintain a positive outlook. It's really strange as since I've been off chemo, a lot of the time I don't even think of myself as having a serious illness at all! Maybe that's just me being stubborn and refusing to acknowledge that I do have this rotten disease.

If you made it through all my waffling on, thanks for reading/listening!

Let's Party!

Here's a fun card I put together yesterday for 2 challenges. The first one is Catch The Bug Challenge - Embossing, the 2nd one is The Pink Elephant - colour challenge of Pink, Orange and Aqua.

I've used a digital stamp and greeting from Bugaboo Stamps and coloured the image with Copic Markers, added some glitter......well, just because I could! I layered the image onto Nestabilities circles and Lacey circles die-cuts. My embossing part of the challenge used a Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder.



The DP is by Kaisercraft, I've also added ribbon and paper string.

Thanks for visiting and hope you are having a lovely day!

Butterfly and orchid card.

Good morning everyone, here's my card for today! I've used Darkroom Door stamps for my images - the orchid is from the Wildflower set, the tiny butterfly is from the Full Bloom Vol. 2 set, the greeting is by Stamp-It. I used Crushed Olive Distress Ink for the orchid and greeting and Brilliance Starlite Black for the butterfly - love this ink, it looks like a shimmery grey colour. The Designer Paper is Basic Grey 'Among the ruins' from Scarlet's Letter Collection. The cardstock is Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey, the black is Pedigree Paper. The ribbon is also Stampin' Up.

I've entered this card for the following challenges:
Card Patterns - Sketch 97
Basic Grey Challenges - Dots and Spots.
Moxie Fab World - Gray is the new Black challenge.
Let's Ink It Up - Anything Goes.

Please spare a thought today for the residents of the state of Queensland here in Australia. I'm sure you've heard of the devastating floods there affecting 75% of the state - to put that in perspective, it's an area the size of France and Germany combined! We won't know the extent of the damage and lives lost for some weeks to come yet. Already there have been heartbreaking stories emerge of children or their parents being swept away by flood waters, a lot of these people had no warning of the floods as they approached too fast to act. If you can, please donate to the appeal or help in any way you are able to!

BTW, if you think that climate change doesn't happen, well, this is the result of what happens when our oceans get too warm!

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger : Winter White

This week's Tuesday Trigger on Moxie Fab World is this gorgeous cake in Winter White.


I took my inspiration from the white on white colour theme and the dimension and texture of the flowers. I used a single butterfly instead of the flowers and layered it on a Cuttlebug embossed piece of cardstock. I stamped the butterfly onto vellum and heat embossed it using off-white embossing powder.(sorry, I don't know the brand - it was an unmounted stamp from eBay, if anyone knows please let me know!) The greeting is a little hard to see in the photo, but it says 'Birthday wishes' from the Stampin' Up 'Sincere Salutations' set, I also heat embossed it. I've added ribbons, lace, tiny pearls and a little glitter around the edges of the cardstock.

I had a hard time capturing the true colour of my card, but the cardstock and ribbons/lace are all off-white.



Close-up photo is below.

This is my first time playing at Moxie Fab World, I think I will be playing there often. It's also my first new card for 2011, hope you like it!

Birds and baubles.

Here's a couple of Christmas cards that I didn't get around to showing before Christmas.

The first one uses a Justrite Stampers greeting and circle frame, the frame is gold embossed. A very simple card, I just layered my 'bauble' onto Kaisercraft DP and added some red ribbons and a bit of bling.


The second card is even simpler and nice and flat for easy mailing! I just embossed white cardstock with the CB Swiss Dots embossing folder and layered the CB embossed dove over it, the word is from a Darkroom Door Yuletide stamp set.

I promise I'll have something new to show you next time! Hope you are having a great day!