Summer Hits The Stamp Spot

I can't believe Wednesday has come round again! Today is my day for posting my DT card for The Stamp Spot. Since the weather is heating up here in Melbourne I felt this Miss Anya was the perfect choice to ink up! I've added some black stickles on her sunglasses and cut her out with my nesties.

Once again I've used some of the challenge items Marcia popped into our DT kits. I really struggled with the large die cut behind my flower - it was just too flat for my liking!!! Soooo - after staring at it over the past few weeks I thought why not cuttlebug emboss it for some texture - I used the script folder! Much better!!! And then it just seemed easy to place - how funny that such a little thing can help the creative juices flow!

The fabulous DP is from Sassafrass Lass and comes with the beautiful faux stitched edging! Everything is available from The Stamp Spot Online Store with the exception of the punches I used for the sentiment and the flowers.

I love the exotic and Summery feel of this card - even my 11yo son gave this one the thumbs up - LOL

xXx

Anya Ink Challenge #6 - Blue and Orange

Before I talk about this card I'd like to thank everyone for their sweet comments on my last card - I had a bad day that day - you should have seen my workspace - Tildas and paper EVERYWHERE - LOL!!! I think I was just sooo frustrated by the end of it - but I'm glad I finally produced something you liked!

I have also been asked about the swirls and leaves I use - the swirls are a sizzix die and the leaves are McGill punches - email me if you want further info!

Now onto today's card...

Last week we were looking through my stash of cards for a male card - hmmmm - not many there!! I thought this colour challenge from Anya Ink would be the perfect combo to use to start building a collection! I only recently bought this Ian from The Stamp Spot and have been eager to ink him up - he's perfect for the guys in your life!

After I had him all carded up I kept looking at the bare top left corner - if this was a girl's card I would have popped a flower or 2 there - but I was at a loss for what to use for a guy! I decided on leaving it bare as everything I tried just didn't work. Maybe guy's cards need to be simpler - I would appreciate any opinions on this!!!

I do remember one of the senior SU demos telling us at Convention last year that brads are always a good embellishment for male cards - after all - the name BRAD is male so it's kind of a hint - LOL. Maybe that's why roses are great on female cards!!

Here's hoping everyone has a FANTASTIC week - it's certainly starting to feel like Summer is on the way here in Melbourne!!! I am soo NOT a hot weather girl!!!

xXx

Magnolia Down Under Challenge #26 - A Sketch

This fortnight Kellie has a sketch for us and I thought "Great - I LOVE sketches!!" Unfortunately I think my mojo has gone on an early Christmas vacation and I had all sorts of bother getting this done for my deadline!!

I had planned to use my card to send to an 11 year old American girl who survived a home invasion by 4 teenagers who killed her mother and left her for dead - you can read her story and about the wonderful drive to send cards to Jaimie HERE. Unfortunately as my mood deteriorated with my lack of success my card got darker and darker and I have decided NOT to send this one to Jaimie - but I do have another one I made recently that I will send. However, I still wanted to get her story out there in case you too wanted to help out! You can forward your card to the address below...

The DP I used for the background is from Magnolia's Yummy range and is available at the Magnolia Down Under Store. I ended up with one of my favourite older Tildas and lots of cuttlebug embossed panels. I'm still not happy with the final card - but my family liked it and I am sure it's only the preceeding frustrations that have left me unsure of it!

In the meantime I'm sure the rest of the MDUC DT have come up with some fabulous inspiration for you - check them out HERE. Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Kellie with a $10 voucher for the Magnolia Down Under Store!

Wish me luck trying to convince my mojo to come home - LOL.

xXx

Donna's Fabulous Hexagonal Gift Box

The lovely Donna over at Butternut Sage designs has come up with a wonderful tutorial to make this fabulous hexagonal box - check out Donna's beautiful version HERE. I love unusual shaped boxes so I had to pick up the tutorial and give it a go!

I've added a magnetic clip to the inside to hold the top in place - these are from Basic Grey and are the small size - I found them at The Scrapbook Boutique.

I've also sandwiched the ribbon between the base of the box and the outer bottom layer - but you don't have to do this!

When I showed my hubby and DD the finished box they were most impressed - my daughter told me it looked like something you'd buy from The Body Shop!!! High praise indeed - LOL. I'll be making a few more of these - some Christmas ones for teachers for starters!

To give you an idea how big the box is each of the six sides measure 2 1/2" square.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up with the exception of the magnetic closure and satin ribbon.

xXx

Blog Award and a Bit About ME!

Earlier this week I was honoured by 2 extremely talented ladies with a Blog Award - Thanx sooo much Tracey and Jodie - and if you haven't seen there work click on their names and head off for some wonderful eye candy!!!

Now I've been VERY slack in the past about passing awards on - I LOVE getting them but I HATE chosing from the many many talented bloggers out there who to pass them on to. I always go waaayyyy over the limit of people to pass on to and then find I've forgotten someone!!! BUT - this one is a little different - I get to share a bit of myself too - all with one word answers - that's gonna be hard for this little talker - LOL! So here goes......

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your hair? Brunette
3. Your mother? Strong
4. Your father? Deceased
5. Your favorite food? Chocolate

6. Your dream last night? Dunno
7. Your favorite drink? Orange Juice
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. What room are you in? Study
10. Your hobby? Stamping
11. Your fear? Death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Slim - hahahaha
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? Slim
15. Muffins? White Choc and Raspberry
16. Wish list item? House Cleaner
17. Where did you grow up? UK, Switzerland and Australia
18. Last thing you did? Ate Crunchie Bar
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Needs replacing
21. Your pets? Holly
22. Friends? Fabulous

23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Cheeky

25.Missing someone? Dad
26. vehicle? Elantra

27. Something you're not wearing? Socks
28. Your favorite store? Scrapbook

29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When was the last time you laughed? Reading Tracey's answers as I replaced them - oops too many words -LOL
31. Last time you cried? Don't remember
32. Your best friend? Richard
33. One place that I go to over and over? Loo
34. Facebook? Yes
35. Favorite place to eat? Anywhere with nice food!

Well there you go - I tried!!! There's a couple with a few extra words!

Now to pass this on! If you're listed on my side bar as a favourite place to visit or you are a follower of mine - this is for you! Told you I can't decide - LOL

xXx

Double Up!

I'm being a little cheeky this week as I'm busy ferrying my daughter to and from exams and revision visits with her teachers. I'm doubling up my Stamp Spot Wednesday with the current Anya Ink Challenge - hope you don't mind Marcia!!! Anya Ink are asking for paper toling this week - a really fun challenge that can add sooo much depth to your work for just a little bit of effort. Tracey has a wonderful step by step explanation of how to paper tole an image here.

Apologies for my photo - my PC is at the computer doctors and the photo software on my laptop isn't as user friendly - maybe I should just learn to take better photos - LOL!!

You can find this gorgeous Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses DP and the adorable Christmas Sweeties stamps from The Greeting Farm over at The Stamp Spot Store. The bottom snowflake and the fur trim have been given the Polar White Flower Soft treatment - this is also available at the store. I've also added a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds for some snowy sparkle!

xXx

Lisa's 50th - A Month Long Celebration Begins!!!

Do you ever have one of those things stuck in your brain that you are SOOOO sure is right - and then you find out you're WRONG when it's too late!?!?!?! Well that's what I did with my gorgeous friend Lisa's Birthday! Lisa and I have never met - except through the keyboard of our computers and blogs - but she has become a dear friend is such a short time! And she "let" it slip that this year she has a milestone birthday coming up. I popped on facebook and checked out the date - and then remembered it ALL WRONG!!! I sent this to Lisa to arrive for the end of October - unfortunately her birthday isn't for another month - OOOPS!!! I did email her as soon as I realised to tell her to put her Aussie arrival away when it got there but I was tooo late!!!

Lisa has graciously forgiven me and tells me she now has an excuse to start her birthday celebrations early - you go girl!!!

I made this card for her and was then told by my kids that it was too young for a 50 year old - I tried to explain that being 50 didn't mean you couldn't be full of youthful fun and sent it anyway!!! Luckily Lisa loved it so I'm glad I didn't listen to the kids!!!

I've used another gorgeous Mo Manning image and coloured her in blues and yellows - such a fresh colour combo! I've sparkled her wings up as well as popping some glitter on the petals of the largest flower and the sentiment - it looks soo sparkly IRL - just like Lisa!! Some Cuttlebugged "bubbles" for the background, the number 50 and the yellow sizzix swirls and she was ready to send off!!!

Now to remember to wish Lisa a Happy 50th on the RIGHT day - LOL - but in the meantime...

Happy start to your 50th birthday celebrations Lisa!!!!

xXx

Creatalicious Challenge #3

Yay - I finally found some ME time today and disappeared into my crafting corner to play along with this month's Creatalicious Challenge. The rules are

* Use only scrap/used sheets of DP
* You can use new cardstock
* Add flowers handmade by you

Well I think I managed to fill all the criteria!! This is another Mo Manning illustration from Digital Pencil Too and this card came together pretty quickly as I already had these lovely gals coloured up ready to go - they are perfect for teenagers! The DP is from Stampin' Up and the flower is made from both sides of the same DP. The tutorial for the flower by Michele Roos is HERE. I've made this one before and I'm sure I'll be making it again - I think they are FABULOUS.

I've also "made my own" DP by stamping my SU Gratuitous Graffiti background stamp on it in the same colour ink as the CS - Pumpkin Pie. The Night of Navy CS has been "thumped" with the matching ink to add more texture. And YES - I used my distressing tool again seeing it was sitting on the desk waiting to be shown some more love - LOL

xXx

Marcia's Challenge for The Stamp Spot DT Continues!

As I told you a couple of weeks ago Marcia sent her DT some fun new products to play with and this week I've used some of the gorgeous Felt Ribbon - this is the Raspberry but it does come in other colours - check them out HERE. It went beautifully with this wonderful Basic Grey DP from the Indian Summer series. The muted tones mixed with the pink gives you a lot of scope to play with other colours - so I went with Chocolate Chip - LOL.

My image is one of the adorable gals from Inky Impressions - Angelica's Heart Socks. These images are just gorgeous and have sooo much detail in them - but once you add some colour to her eyes she seems to just come alive. I've used my nesties and cuttlebug embossing folders to create the "frame" for Angelica to sit in - she looked a little lost popped up on the felt ribbon. But I did find a home for a little felt offcut at the top of the frame - it just seemed to tie everything together. Some rhinesones and pearls were added for a little bit of bling.

The sentiment is from SU but all the rest can be found at The Stamp Spot Online Store.

The glue is probably still drying as I post this as I'm a bit behind today!!! Hope I'm better organised next week for my Stamp Spot Day!!!

xXx

What Have I Been Up Too???

I haven't had much crafting time lately as last week was my daughter's final week at High School!! Yup - she's all done bar the actual exams. At last Friday's Graduation Dinner there were plenty of tears shed as the kids farewelled their school days and some favourite teachers.

During the week we had friends over for dinner, early morning champagne breakfasts, school uniform "re-designing" for the last day, the final parade of the year 12s to school and the Graduation Dinner - what a week!!! And considering I work at a High School - the one my daughter's boyfriend attends! - I seem to have done a lot of it twice - LOL.

And then to top it off I had my family over for lunch on Sunday - a small gathering of 17!

Anyway - I thought I'd share some pics from Sarah's last day. I've always been proud of her and this last day was no exception. She left the Graduation Dinner carrying a framed certificate she was awarded - along with a cheque for $300 - for her outstanding contribution to the college. Now onto the pics...

"Muck-up" morning and breakfast with the teachers - Sarah (2nd from right, the short blonde - shhhh - don't tell her I called her short - LOL) and her beautiful "girlies" in their altered school uniforms!

Those same 4 gorgeous young ladies later in the day at their Graduation Dinner - what a difference a few hours make - LOL.

xXx