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!

Bird card.

I'm back again with another yellow card! I know, I said I don't like yellow, but since I had my Scattered Straw Distress Ink out from yesterday's card I decided to make a card for Less Is More's Week 66 Colour Challenge - Yellow.

I used a solid background stamp with the Scattered Straw ink and overstamped the birds on a branch image (Grace Taylor) with Brilliance Starlite Black ink. I watercoloured the flowers with some more Scattered Straw ink just to accentuate them a little. The Stamp-It greeting uses the same Starlite Black ink.

I'm also entering this card for The Pink Elephant - TPE #147 All About Mom
and
Critter Sketch Challenge #114 - Mom


Thanks for stopping by today!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Clean & Simple #169

Clean and simple is the way to go when you're in a rush to get your Christmas cards out on time! I used this week's sketch from the Clean & Simple blog to make not one, but two cards using the same stamp!

Stamps by Kaisercraft and Hero Arts (Joy). Patterned papers from Kaisercraft and Little Yellow Bicycle. Cheery Lynn doily die and Kaisercraft star brads also used.

That's all for now folks!