Hi, another sunny but cool day here today, I'm excited though as I booked our flights for New Zealand this morning yeah!!!!!

Walshie and I are off to the land of the long white cloud next month oohh can't wait.

We fly into Christchurch and spend ten days driving around the south island. Actually a couple of those days we'll be cruising on Milford Sound. That's enough about that already!!!

I thought I'd post this little card I made for Joanne's Friday Pot Luck Challenge over at STV. I feel a bit guilty though as it's such an easy one! the clever card makers over at Stamp TV have already entered some great takes on this challenge which was 'No Squares Allowed'. what do you think naughty or not? The stamp is from SU Circle Circus which I really like and I stamped it onto a punched circle I had......not bad ah, I love the stamp-a-ma-jig.

Off to brush up some leaves.........

Take a look at all these cards!

I went with a couple of my friends who are also new to card making, to Fiona's place.

Fiona is our local SU demonstrator and she was holding a workshop. We had a most enjoyable evening playing with all Fiona's stamps, punches etc and walked away with a very pretty card set (pictures 1 and 2) using the 'fresh cut notes' along with five other cards.

I'm sending my Mum in the UK the little card set for Mother's Day, I know she'll enjoy them and its always a good idea to have some 'just in case' cards isn't it!

If you get a moment drop by Fiona's blog here .

Oh I should own up the butterfly was an after thought when I got home and realised I had a big empty space on one card!!!!

That's it for today I'm off to check who won the 'Blog Candy' at Jeanette's blog..............

This card was made for the latest sketch challenge over at Stamp TV.

'Wreath of Wishes' Stamped wreath which I've coloured with Copic Markers.

The Butterfly is from Hampton Art. Stamped in Almost Amethyst.

(I did use some fine glitter..... but I'm afraid I get more on me than the card!)

The card Stock is SU as is the sentiment stamp.

I know I said I wouldn't post today but here I am.... 

It's been a beautiful day here but very windy. DH and I drove into Sydney to visit the Art Gallery of NSW where they are showing the Portrait paintings  shortlisted for the annual Archibald Prize.  The paintings are judged by the Trustees of The Art Gallery and they have already named the winner. However, the public have a chance to view and vote for  their favourite which also gets an award.  I think it works out something like Aus$50,000 for the winner and Aus$2,500 for the peoples choice.  Guy Maestri won for his portrait of Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu  and I must say it  got my vote (novice that I am!), it is an amazing painting.  There were others that I really liked too, an oil painting of Aussie Rocker Jimmy Barnes for one.  Anyway it was a good day, there were plenty of people out and about enjoying the sunshine.

I thought I'd post  this picture I took today, just in case you haven't seen it before!!!!!! the water looks a bit chilly though don't you think.  

Till tomorrow.............

I wanted to add a second picture the my last post at the bottom of the post but this programme wouldn't let me for some reason (I've still got a bit to learn it seems). So anyway in the end I decided on a second post, here goes.

Today my 'downstairs bathroom' was lost to me........ my DH has decided not to pay Gym fees any longer. Our new addition moved in today!!! what do you think? I only had to move a couple of things around for him and it's a small price to pay, he could have asked for half my craft room after all (I'll post a picture one day when it's tidy...... no being pushed into a corner for this craft addict).

That's it for me I'll post again on Monday all being well. Have a Restful Sunday.

ANZAC DAY here today, for those who don't know its the day Australia and New Zealand remember all the men and women lost to wars.

Baby George James was born today a brother for Alexa, how exciting.

This is his 'welcome to the world' card. The stamps are from SU, as is the baby blue card. The DP is a piece from my stash it's called 'it takes two' and I've just punched the bottom with a 'Fiskars' punch. The 'Pazzle' was out today to cut the scolloped circles!

Here is another Blog Candy Alert go check it for yourself! Just click here

Oh I'm so happy - it's around 11pm and I've finally managed to get my signature at the bottom of my posts without a box around it so check this out yeah!!!!!

Friday at last!

What a mad week the time has just flown! I wish I had kept a note of how many hours I've spent on the computer. Everyday I try to get one more thing sorted out on this blog - I'm getting there slowly!!

This morning I've been over at Stamp TV's launch on Splitcoast Stampers. Crazy, and hard to keep up with with so many people joining the 'chat' but fun never the less.

Today I'm posting a little card set I made ready for a gift. The story behind it is that I was given a very cute gift tag set for hosting a stamp party and thought ahh good gift idea I could do that! You know the way you do. Well I learnt a very valuable lesson and that is make the cards and envelopes (if you have to make envelopes) then make the pack to put them in!!! I made the envelopes last and made them slightly larger than the cards..... so now have to go back and make a new pack large enough for the envelopes. LOL.... Do you follow this? I guess I won't do that again........

So the stamp set is SU Animal Crackers, which is a really fun set. Base Card is also SU with all kinds of bits and pieces from my stash. I did a bit of colouring with Copic markers, not too much though.

I'm off to do some boring stuff (housework) ready for the week-end. Have a good one!!

Hampton Art Flowers

Good Morning, it really is here this morning the suns out though there are still clouds around but the forecast says they will clear. I've been sitting trying to tidy up my blog this morning and have to thank Nina over at crafting in croatia who has helped me with a couple of queries! Still can't get the Stamp TV logo across I keep getting an internal error message (sounds painful ah!). I'm not about to give up though if I learn one new thing each day I'll be happy.

So two more simple cards to post today. I've called them Hampton Art Flowers as that's the clear stamp set I used. I like this stamp set, the flowers are what I call "naive" (quite simply in style). It has some beautiful butterflies too, which I'll add later. This 1st one is stamped on white CS then mounted on black with all the edges distressed. I've used paper ribbon wrapped around both and then fixed it to my DP which has a scolloped edge. I punched another scolloped edge on my SU plain card and to finish attached the 3 buttons.

This second card is my favourite today. I had this very pretty DP in soft washed out colours that I thought would be great for the naive flower. Again Stamped on white card which is mounted on first a piece of beige/tan card that came to me as wrapping (can't quite remember what it wrapped just that I thought Ohh I can use that!!!). Then on a small off cut of Olive card, all the edges where distressed once again. I used the paper ribbon in a coordinating colour across the top and bottom of the card and finished of with another button.

So, that's it for today, now I'm off to do "my messages" as my Hub would say - (It's Liverpudlian for shopping). Have a great day!

Its a lovely sunny day here today, I'm posting this quickly so I can get outside with the broom! I'm really excited as yesterday I ordered a Cuttlebug die cutter. I've been making a wishlist of dies and embossing folders, what fun. I'll start slowly not my usual "boots and all", I think the Swiss Dots E F is a must have and I need to choose perhaps one more for a start. A small curly flower shape die and then on to the really serious stuff like "Nesties" Oohh can't wait.

Now onto a couple of cards - the first one is a quickish card for my Brother-in-Laws Birthday (I think I'm safe posting this, he's unlikely to see it here!!). I had this cool circle paper from Bella "boyz 2 men" which I really like so played with the circle punch's I own (all three of them!). Added a small amount of ribbon (it's OK no bow), then just punched out the sentiment which was fixed to the page on a SU scolloped circle with foam tape. Hey presto easy as! I think there's enough red in it for my Liverpool Supporter Brother-In-Law!

This second card, sorry I realise there is a lot of shadow on this photo, is also a simple card. I stamped white card stock with a small SU stamp then layered my stamped image on 2 pieces of card the base one being black as I was using a stick on number "3". I left enough space on the black card to add the "computer printed sentiment" (as I also wanted Alexa's name on the card). Added the corner embellishments. Next job was to wrap some pink and purple foil thread around the DP, then I stuck on my "3" with a thin ribbon tied to it. I plan to make a little gift bag to go with this card for Alexa's Birthday next month so will post that as and when!

OK so now a big cloud has appeared so the broom is probably safe in the garage for a while. I'm off to check out Stamp TV!............

I'm posting a card today that I saw on Donna's Bog "Butternut Sage Designs." Donna posts a new card each Monday under "My Paper Cuts", this was #14.

I loved this card as soon as I saw it and thought it would be the perfect card for one of my Brothers.

My stamp was from "The Artful Stamper" and the papers I've used are from Basic Grey, SU and Bazzill. I've just added the SU Spiral Punch to my stash and loved using it here. I also love the simple use of the paper ultra thin strips as an embellishment.

Go check out Donna's Blog she has lots to see.

I'm off to post my Brother's Birthday Card!!!

Pictures From The Garden

                                                     

                                   

   It's Monday and the sun is trying to pop through the  clouds this morning.  We've had quite a bit of rain during the night so the garden is looking good. I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from the garden, the Camellias and Azaleas are spot flowering at the moment adding a bit of colour.

Day One Of My Blog!

OK -  so I've chosen a name for my blog (not sure I'll stick with it yet though). For my first post  hmm well its a rainy day in Sydney at the start of the Autumn "Hubby" and I have been trying to organise a holiday (much needed holiday!) - when its booked we'll have lots to talk about so watch this spot.

Now, craft wise I posted an entry for the Stamp TV Challenge No 9 last night. First job was to cut out a curly label using my Pazzles Inspiration Die Cutter. I used one of my new SU stamps Whoops a Daisy and clear embossed it on Blue card stock which I then sponged  in white. I then framed the Daisies by flipping the cut out taking advantage of the patterned side of the blue card stock. Embellished the card with a button studded Daisy and three Kaiser Rhinestones.  I still have trouble getting things straight not helped by "hubby" who can spot this a mile off!!  Well I know he's a perfectionist so I tell him only God's perfect!!