The Craft's Meow Sketch Challenge

We have a new sketch for you this month over at The Craft's Meow and it was designed by yours truly! It's only the second sketch I've ever created but I LOVED seeing what people came up with using my last one so thought I'd give it another go!

I've used the "In Tandem" set designed by Nina B Designs for The Craft's Meow. This set was released last month but there was a glitch in the postal system and it took over a month for it to arrive! In the meantime Lovely Lisa sent me a new set - so now I have TWO!! Well I figured one of my lovely followers could benefit and I will randomly select a winner for this set from one of the comments left on this post

We hope you can come over and play!

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Release Day Blog Hop from the Craft's Meow

Woot woot it's release day over at The Craft's Meow and we are celebrating with a blog hop. The fun all starts over at The Craft's Meow Blog and you'll find the full hop list there too. But if you are already hopping along you should have landed here from Amy's Blog.

I've used images from both of the new sets on my card AND some from Jenny Suchin's "Owl See You In Class" amd "Owl Be Thinking of You" sets that were released last month.

It's Father's Day here in Australia on Sunday and these guys made such a fabulous scene for my FIL. Having the owls perched on one of the moustaches gives the whole thing a masculine feel just right for Father's Day - and with my family of 4 appearing as owls I thought it was fun too.

Don't forget you can check out the 2 sets that are being released in full on our blog.

Now it's time to send you off to Ivana's Blog for some more fun.

Ciaos in picture - W1, W7, B93

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The Emerald Faerie Garden Challenge #8 - Buttons

It's time for a new challenge over at The Emerald Faerie Garden and this time it's "buttons". I thought it was a cute idea to have one of the faeries sitting on a giant button and chose one of our newest faeries Isabella to use. I made the button with 5 layers of Kraft CS and then punched holes using my crop-o-dile before layering on some crystal effects. I first saw this idea on Dena's blog but it's fabulous fun to make it extra large - LOL. I had meant to stamp over a little pattern before applying the crytsal effects - oopsie - I hope the gorgeous Graphic 45 DP and emebllishments make up for it!

I did use a couple of "real" buttons too - and the sentiment is from The Emerald Fairy Garden ticket sentiments. 

So grab your buttons and have some fun!

Copics used - skintones (not pictured) R20, R11, E08, E00, E000 and the ciaos in the picture - R00, BG15

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The Craft's Meow Preview - Fun{tashe}tic

Today we are previewing something a little different for you from Nina B Designs for The Craft's Meow - Moustaches! Such a fun set for those guys in your lives - isn't it great to have some funky images for them! There are several fun sentiments to go along with the "mos" and I've used them to create a fun DP for my card.

You can check out all the fun of preview day over at OUR BLOG and have a chance to win this set for youself. And remember to pop on back tomorrow for our release day blog hop where you'll see ALL the sets revealed in their entirety and have a chance to win.

The Craft's Meow Preview - Happy H'owl'oween

Woohoo - or should I say woot woot. It's preview time for The Craft's Meow. Unfortunately I missed out on last month's fun but have had a blast playing with 2 new sets this month. This one is called Happy H'owl'oween and was designed by the talented Jenny Suchin from Wee Memories. Jenny had 2 fabulous owl sets released last month too so be sure to check them out if you think this guy's a hoot.

You can check out all the fun from this set and see a sneak peek from tomorrow's set over on our blog HERE. Release day is September 1st (PST) which is the first day of Spring here in Australia - a double reason the celebrate!

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These Two Reminded Me of My Kids

When I first saw these siblings from Mo Manning they reminded me of my own kids. I have an older girl who is very protective of her little brother (even though at 13 he's now nearly as tall as she is - LOL). I told my daughter why I loved these so much and her first reaction was "my hair isn't that boofy" - but she never denied her affection for her brother. The reason I've done these 2 blonde is because my kids are blonde too - they have their Dutch grandmother to thank for that. Oh the fond memories these bring back of years past!

These 2 are Helena and Henry - or there's Andrea and Raul if you'd prefer. And don't forget Mo's DT have their own blog HERE for regular inspiration.

Copics used - skintones R20, R11, E08, E00, E000 - plus ciaos in picture Y00, C1, B95, B93, R29, R22, E51

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Magnolia Down Under Challenge #111

Welcome to another fabulous challenge over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges - this week we are asking you to use TEXTURE on your creations. Now why I would decided to stamp and 3D these trees 24 hours before the post went up is beyond me but it certainly creates the look I was after. Adding to the texture I've used some stickles and flower soft along the branch edges. I used an embossed frame background for more texture - along with some 3D snowflakes, pearls and lace. The sentiment and my mini Tilda are popped up too.

As I was so late in getting my card into the MDUC blog I got to have a sneak peek at the rest of the DTs AMAZING inspiration for this challenge. Do yourself a favour and pop on over to our blog too before heading into your own craftroom to play along!

Copics - Skintones R11, R20, E08, E00, E000 and ciaos in the picture - YG67, R29, R27, R22

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Make It Colourful - Sunsets with Clouds

And Now For Something a Bit Different

Having been a lab tech for most of my working life I have a real appreciation for science and the way experiments can make you think. Recently I was helping out at my old workplace and came across an article about resin casting - and this was followed up with an email discussion with Mo Manning about me trying to cast some of her gorgeous Christmas images into resin like the bugs and "other things" that are lying around the lab.

I chose Mo's adorable Christmas elves - Lil Elf Pipa and Lil Elf Mim to create some resin ornaments for my Christmas tree. I found the casting resin at my local hardware store - and you need to get some catalyst too. And here's a word of warning - this stuff may look great but it's pretty smelly and ate through the 3 layers of plastic cup we mixed it in - so TAKE CARE!!! Before cutting my images out I backed them with some Christmas DP to hide the ink splotches on the back. You also need to seal your images with a couple of coats of matt mod podge on both sides before casting. I added some star dust stickles to the elves after sealing for some Christmas bling!

For a mould I found some oversized silicon muffin pans - you can see the ridges on the side from the pans so be aware of the patterns if you're looking for moulds. I also had to get my moulds before printing off my images so I'd know how big I could make them! Luckily I placed my images face up as the silicon had a slight texture to the surface making the end result look like frosted glass. I also have a couple of fingerprints in the surface of one thanx to he who shall remain nameless touching one too early. They take a good 48hours plus to dry! And DON'T cast on a rainy or humid day as your resin may end up cloudy! I also think I could have made these a bit thinner but it looked like the images were floating up to the surface and we wanted them embedded - in fact we did push them down with a stick a couple of times - live and learn!

Once done I simply hot glued on some gold cord, a bow and a little flower (to cover the glue) and there you go - 2 glass like Mo Manning original Christmas ornaments! FYI this are about 3"(7.5cm) in diameter across the top.

Copics used as pictured plus skintones E08, E00, E000, R20, R11. Ciaos in picture are YR23, R37, R35, R32

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New Release from Emerald Faeries

Today is release day for 2 gorgeous new Emerald Faeries - This first one is the adorable Isabella. I've always loved pink and green together and I thought it would be a fabulous colour combo for Isabella.

And now I'd like to introduce you to the sweetest baby around - meet Ashee. He reminds me of the baby photos taken by one of my all time favourite baby photographers - Anne Geddes.

Both of these cuties are now available for sale at...

THE EMERALD FAERIES ONLINE STORE

And don't forget to pop over to our blog HERE and check out what the rest if the Emerald Faerie Garden gals have come up with using these fabulous new faeries.

Copic colours for these images - both use skintones E08, E00, E00, R11, R20. The photo on the right is for Isabella.

These ones are for Ashee - the ciaos pictured are R37, R35, R32, B95, B93

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