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!

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.

Quick Easter card.

Hi there, this is a quick post today as I have to go and have chemo this morning. My card is a very quick one using punches, a die cut, a rub-on and a stamped greeting. All of the papers, the die-cut and rub-on are from Kaisercraft Bubblegum Hills range, the greeting is from Annabelle Stamps, the two border punches are from Fiskarcraft.

I used this week's sketch FTL184 from the Clean & Simple blog.

I don't seem to have been in my craft room much lately, I've been busy with other things! I bought a new lens for my DSLR camera so I've been having a play with that. I've also had a cooking bug, I made a yummy zucchini cake yesterday! Footy season has started, but my team had a bad loss first up :(

Thanks for visiting here today, and thanks so much for leaving any comments!

Anniversary Card.

Hi there, just a quick post today with a card I've made for my daughter and son-in-law's wedding anniversary.

Supplies used:
Inks - Brilliance Starlite Black, Versafine Black Onyx, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink (for sponging)
Stamps - Justrite Stampers alphabets, American Crafts (birds on a branch), Kaisercraft (background)
Other - Kaisercraft (Patterned Paper and rhinestones), Stampin' Up and Pedigree Paper (cardstock), Nestabilities Label (something!), ribbon from my stash.

I'm entering this card for Mojo Monday Sketch 232

I most likely won't be around blogland for the next few days as it's chemo day tomorrow - 2 weeks comes around awfully fast! At least I'm feeling good at the moment, and a big thank you to all my readers who are following my progress!

Flowers and Script

Hi there! I wanted to make a card for the Less Is More blog challenge 58 of a one layered card using a script stamp plus a sentiment, I couldn't make up my mind whether to use a separate script stamp and flower stamp or an all in one collage type stamp...in the end I chose to do it both ways and made three cards.

I used a Collections script stamp using Broken China Distress Ink and stamped over it with assorted silhouette flowers and a butterfly from Darkroom Door Wildflowers set using Ranger Archival Cobalt ink - stamped twice to get a shadow effect. The greeting is by Heidi Grace.

This one uses the one stamp, an oldy I've had for a long time by Penny Black called 'Letter and Daisy'. I masked off the outline and sponged on some Old Paper Distress Ink then coloured the flowers using Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The greeting is by Stampin' Up.

Not sure that I like how this one turned out, I used the same Collections script stamp, but used the Ranger Archival Cobalt ink for all the stamping - the script kind of got lost amongst all those flowers (Hero Arts) and the textured cardstock! I stamped the flowers a second time for a shadow effect again, the greeting is by Stampin' Up.


I'm also entering the 2 blue and white cards for this weeks Splitcoast Stampers Monday CAS challenge - White with shades of blue.

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

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!