Hearts a Flutter

Well I finally found a window of time and decided I would work from the Verve Sketches for February, I made a little set of cards from the same papers, both because this saved time and also because a recent clean told me I have way too much and I should use use use!

This was also a great opportunity to use some new Verve stamps, gone are the days when Verve arrived to Australia in a week, this lot took like four weeks... dang postal service!!!

But anyways, I really like the new label die and the butterfly die to match the dreamy butterflies old and new. 

I have also unearthed and put in front place my previously for special occasions SU Pretties Kit, not sure why we all keep things for special occasions, we all have more everyday occasions than special ones, so from here forward I will use with abandon!

What's in it?
Stamps:  Verve: Always on My Mind, Twitterpated, Blue Skies
Paper:  SU: Old Olive, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink:  SU: Purely Pomegranite, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink
Extras:  Verve: A Cut Above Dies--All Aflutter, Hearts & Swirls Frame; SU: Pretties Kit; Zva: Bling.

Mischief Makers--Shake that Cameo

Well this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge spoke to me in the form of a shaker card, and along with the glitter for the centre window I added some little cameos, stamped in shades to match the paper, hand cut and carefully added before sealing the window label.

This is really easy to do and made easier by some extra strong double sided tape that I am tyring to use up at the moment... dang stuff is the devil in disguise when it comes to removing the backing tape, to I am using it at every opportunity until it is finished and banished from my life....

I had visions of covering the crossed stripes from this sketch with strings of buttons, but in the end the pearls seamed to do it for me, so I went with those.

Hope you find time to play along with this sketch challenge this week, don't forget to link up to win!

What's in it?
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps:  Very Vintage Labels No.2, Cameo Maker, Fancy Phrases
Paper:  Crate Paper: Emma's Shoppe Collection; SU: Pink Pirouette; Kraft; Basic White
Ink:  SU: Regal Rose, Old Olive, Marigold Morning, Pretty in Pink; Distress: Antique Linen
Extras:  Ruby Rockit: Pearls; Recycled Acetate; Foam Tape; Stampendous: Silver Crushed Glass Glitter; May Arts: Twine.

Hit Me Baby One More Time...

Here's a little card to welcome a new little Baby Brittany into the world... the first daughter for my cousin, so is nice she has a bit of gender mix now... here's hoping this Brittany grows up a bit better than the one in the school uniform, you know that song!

This image was thankfully pre-coloured, in purple of all things!  I like mixing aqua tones with pinks, greens and purples so went with this in place of trying to find a piece of purple paper, which is basically not achievable in my Creative Space.

And then 'cause I kept the heart garland white I wanted white accents, so chose a double pass of my newly rediscovered doodle fringe and white chipboard letters.  Some basic faux stitching to finish off.

Simply and hopefully sweet!

What's in it?
Stamps:  The Greeting Farm: Garland Anyas
Paper:  Kaiser: Miss Nelly; SU: Almost Amethyst
Ink:  Memento: Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Clear Spica; Uniball White Gel Pen
Extras:  Paper Piercing Kit: Doodle Bug: Fringe Flower Garland; Basic Grey: Chipboard Letters; Random Bling and Purple Paper Twine.

Five Times Five is Twenty-Five

In the interest of sharing, here are five things which contain five things, all things you probably don't really need to know about me:

• Five Foods I Love: Pecans, Potato Chips, Roast Lamb, Kataifi Cheese Pastries, Veal Parmigiana
• Five Foods I Hate: Walnuts, Fresh Tomato, Tinned Fish, Eggplant, Olives
• Five Places I've Been: New York City, Sapa, Bath, Queenstown, Cockle Creek
• Five Places I Want to Go: Sanfrancisco, Okavango Delta, Paris, Kununurra, Villa Las Estrellas
• Five Words of Wisdom: Tomorrow is your greatest gift!

Play this forward if you like.... soak it up if you don't!

Up Up Up with the Flowers

Well I still like my Stampin' Up! and in downtown Australia it is still one of the best cardboard supplies we can be guaranteed stock from... so I replenished my fave card colours recently and bought myself a couple of little things along with it, one of which was this flower set, I LOVE the layering possibilities, and went a little to town on this my first card with this set.... besides I could cut out all those layers in the ad breaks for Bones, so double bonus!!

I rescued some items from a stash that I put aside after my weekend of work to cleaning my paper stash, and stamped an ancient SU background onto a precut nestie and then lookie there at the Doodlebug Fringe, I new I would one day finds these little ladies, I have missed them!  Some vintage seem binding and a whole lot of foam tape in this one too!

Enjoy this burst of blossoms!

What's in it?
Stamps:  Stampin' Up!: Array of Sunshine, Just Believe (sentiment), Lace Bouquet BG
Paper:  SU: Ridinghood Red, Pretty in Pink; Basic White
Ink:  Pretty in Pink; Rose Red, Regal Rose, Purely Pomegranate; Clear Spica Pen
Extras:  May Arts: Pleated Satin Ribbon; Vintage Seam Binding; Doodle Bug Paper Frills; Zva: Crystal Strip.

Mischief Makers--A Pink and Red Celebration

It's great to be back to make a card with this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch, lots of panel and embellishment opportunities with this one!!

I kept the sketch in its orientation, but added a bracket border strip which came with the paper pack to the rectangle panel... a little movement of the three circles to overlap the main panel and house the little group of sentiments.  I stamped some "knit" to the large panel, and coloured up the chipboard in pink and red with my Copic Markers.  A good dash of bling on this one too, all from my use it now or loose it stash.... great to focus on using scraps!

I hope this little burst of pink and red is to your liking and that you knit up a great card this week, don't forget to link up to win!

What's in it?
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps: Faux Fun, Frame-It
Paper:  Kaiser: Miss Nelly; Kraft; SU: Real Red
Ink:  Memento: Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Distress: Antique Linen; SU: Real Red
Extras:  Zva: Bling; Maya Road: Mini Scallop Chipboard Set; Random Paper String.

Yeppers…. Thieves have NO Taste!

Unfortunately I have been victim to a home invasion, thankfully I was not home at the time!

Fortunately the thieves had very little taste!

This little creation was all primed and ready for me to add the last detail and thankfully they looked straight over it and focussed on my brand new iMac… yes it is very inconvenient to have my computer stolen, of course it had work on there all ready to be queued in blogger, not to mention 300 photos I was about to load into my new Etsy Shop… but they didn't steal my first little She Art Lady, so thanks for that Gang of Thieves!!!!

I have enrolled to undertake Christy Tomlinson's She Art Workshops, this was an easy decision a week or so ago when I was looking for something creative to do when I go on holidays in March…. Of course I was meant to wait a few weeks to start, but couldn't help but take a peek at the workshop content ahead of time… and thanks to a few little peaks I have made a pre-emptive start on my latest mixed media venture… it was necessary, you see, to make something a little special for KathyJ's significant birthday, and I have a swag of these little book board canvases in my stash, so it started and this is where I ended up!

I could pull it apart artistically, but won't 'cause the idea was to include things she liked, included using the dreaded colour blue, a touch of lace, long hair, big flowers and a dash of yellow; and I think I achieved that.

So sorry this was not posted on her actual birthday, but I did have a really good excuse… now I am off to meet with the insurer and work out how to replace my camera cable, 'cause until then this blog will be void of anything….

Until then, embrace your things, you never quite know when your affection for them will be rudely interrupted!!

Cake and Ice Cream

It is definitely your birthday when you get cake and ice-cream on the same plate!!  This is for a little dude who isn't as little as he used to be, all legs and grown up teeth and stories of what he has been up to lately.... double figures, they come around too quick!!!

Some simple paper layering, edged with a Copic; direct stamping onto the twill and a little bit of Maya Road LOVE.... I have a large MR Collection, and even more to come given I just reviewed the latest catalogue, SWOON!

Happy Birthday Z-Man, I hope you like your "getting to be grown up" present!!

What's in it? 
Stamps:  Hero Arts: Birthday
Paper:  Coso Cricket: Circa 1934; SU: Ridinghood Red, Kraft
Ink:  Memento: Rich Cocoa; Copic Marker
Extras: Maya Road: Wood Bingo Motifs, Kraft Journalling Tags; SU: Twill Tape; Metal Stickers: Nailheads.

Master Seven

Being Seven is pretty carefree if today's viewpoint of my nephew is correct, and he wouldn't think it anything else!!

He loves numbers, so I thought a run of them across the front of a gift card would go well with the present that accompanied... and I think you would think this is the only BOY oriented paper pack I own... not far from the truth, I normally stick to plain card for the lads, particularly the younger ones, so here it is again, still plenty left in the pack too, so no doubt it will be back soon!!

Simple outline and doodling was all I added to this one, hope you like!

What's in it? 
Stamps:  Nil--eek!!
Paper:  October Afternoon: Rocket Age; Random Yellow Bazzill
Ink:  Memento: Rich Cocoa; Early Espresso Marker; Copic Marker
Extras:  PaperTrey: Number Dies.

Farewell Farley

Here is a little card that I sent to my Mum's Bestie who recently said goodbye to her pooch, her honourable companion for some fifteen years...

I wanted to use this image, I like the looking off into the distance element and the statement of life on a swing with your dog buddy... I didn't really want a lot of embellishments, but did want to use one of my new Prima Flowers, these won't be going out to just anybody I can say, SWOON--thanks KathyJ great choice!!

And I {Heart} Kissing Booth papers, have been using these a lot lately, perhaps something else will show up on the blogaroo soon, you never know what is going to make it here and what is not!!

Anyway... a card it is!

What's in it? 
Stamps:  Lili of the Valley:  Swing Time; MFT: Polka Dot Greetings
Paper:  XpressIt: Blending Card; SU: Pink Pirouette; Basic Grey: Kissing Booth
Ink:  Memento: Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers
Extras:  Prima: Harlow Eve Flower; Crystals; EK Success: Scallop Scallops Border Punch.

Mischief Makers--What is Love?

This week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge encourages a bit of LOVE... and why not have a round card to go with it.... I am still without fully functioning cutting plates thanks to the inability of stockists... but I also still have a little stash of round things that I can call on, so all of the die cuts for this card were waiting and ready for use, given this it became a Super Flash card!

I inked up one side of the feature circle with one of the lovely rodent doily stamps... and added the sentiment to the other side, flipping the sketch and shaking it around a little to have the placement of the little chippie hearts to the LHS... some pink and metal ribbon and few rhinestones to finish off!

Hope you feel the love this week, and find time to play along, don't forget to link up to win!

What's in it? 
Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Stamps: Say it Loud, Dainty Doilies 2
Paper:  Basic White, Black; SU: Pink Pirouette
Ink:  SU: Pretty in Pink; Memento: Tuxedo Black
Extras:  Kaiser: Rhinestones; PaperTrey: Pink Ribbon; May Arts: Metal Ribbon; Spellbinders Dies; Chipboard Hearts from way in the Chipboard Vault, Fancy Pants if I remember correctly.

No Knits Required at the Moment

It is wet and hot and humid all over BrisVegas lately, nothing but humidity and certainly no need for anything other than cool cotton, but that didn't stop me buying this fab stamp and colouring it up.... I love the sentiment and it was a great opportunity to try my hand at colouring that massive block of colour in the ball of wool... still a little playing around with this image to be done before I get a feel for it, but a start is a start!

A little line drawing, and a few dots on this one, and a border from a few simple passes on the trusty ScorPal.

What's in it? 
Stamps:  My Favorite Things:  a la Modes--Knit Happens
Paper:  Pink Paislee: Hometown Summer; SU: Ridinghood Red; XPressIt: Blending Card
Ink:  Memento: Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers
Extras:  MFT: Die-Namics: Quartet Tabs; PTI: Border Dies; Beutron: Buttons; May Arts: Twine; ScorPal.