Turtle Punch Art...

Thumper has an important birthday coming up soon so I've been trying to get myself organised in advance...such a cool concept that, being organised in advance...wonder who thought of it?

Anyway, I started thinking about turtle punch art while we were out and about on Lucey Blue, but I couldn't try it out because I didn't take any punches with me (what was I thinking?...thing is, we already had two hefty anchors onboard..16 or 17 would have been way overkill! ;-).

We saw a lot of beautiful turtles on our travels, and their simple shape kind of lends itself to punch art nicely I think...

So late yesterday I had a play and managed to make a little card that I am very happy with...

All the punches I have used are SU. I can list them for you, if anyone wants to know. I think you can probably see that I've coated the turtle shells in Crystal Effects (not all turtle shells are clean and shiny though...check out the moss in one of the pictures way above). The chipboard '1' is also coated in Crystal Effects. Now...quick question for you...what do you think the cluster of things at bottom left of the main panel is supposed to be? A quick poll here at home resulted in the answer 'flowers'!?!...and these were the people I'd been diving on the Great Barrier Reef with for the past eight months! So, just in case you were left wondering, it is supposed to be a coral garden...you know, the sort of thing a turtle hangs out near ;-).

 ...and a few more turtle shots before I go...because I feel like it.

Hope all my fellow Aussies had a very happy Australia Day. Gonna go stand with hubby in the rain now, listen to Triple J Hottest 100 and help BBQ some lamb. Yummy!!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish...

Thumper is asleep, and the other two are busy turning the lounge-room into some kind of tent-city. I have just agreed to sacrifice most of my roll of kitchen string for their washing 'lion' (as Mr 5 calls them)...which, now that it is tied between the tent and the bannister, poses a serious threat to my ability to leave the lounge-room. It even has undies pegged to it!!

So while I'm trapped on the couch (life is HARD ;-) I'll show you some little earrings I recently made as a gift.

The glass lampwork kissy-lip fish are from Etsy (send me a message if you want to know more). Aren't they cute? I won't go on and on about cute fish though because apparently not all of my readers are overly fond of fish. Who'd-a-thunk it? I like fish a lot.....and I still think this giant Maori Wrasse below is particularly stunning ;-p...

We went swimming with him (and a huge school of his much smaller friends) in Manta Ray Bay, on the northern side of Hook Island in the Whitsundays. WOW....I loved it.

But I've completely digressed. Sorry. The rest of the earrings are sterling silver and Swarovski crystal. I am not sure that the recipient will wear them (they could be a tad heavy), but she collects ocean-themed things, so they are appropriate anyway, I hope.

Gonna go try and crawl my way through tent city and into the kitchen now. Wish me luck!

Crochet and Colds...

I have managed to pick up one unpleasant 'welcome home' present on my return to the ACT...a cold! Today I have been feeling especially sorry for myself and now the couch is my friend (at least I have the tennis and my crochet to keep me amused). Thank goodness hubby has been around to entertain the kids.

The crochet is still coming along nicely. Here are a few pics to show you where I'm at...

I love the colours so much. They make me feel happy. For the third and fourth cycles I am going to mirror the colours, then return to the original pattern for the fifth and sixth then mirror again for the seventh and eighth...well, that's the plan for now at any rate ;-).

Gonna go take my tissues and Panadol to bed now! Seeya...

Leaving the leaves until last...

In yesterday's post I mentioned at the end that I thought leaves on the tree might be appropriate. Well, I took a few minutes to have a fiddle this morning, and I think leaves are just what it needed! Being that it is a tree, this should not have been as big a light-bulb moment for me as it was (derrrrrrrrrrrrr)!

Those leaves were tricksy little blighters to stick on, I can tell you! I have managed to get little mangled bits of dimensionals underneath them. Who knows how long they'll stay there though. Note to self: Don't leave card outside in a breeze ;-).

So what do you think? Better?

Have a great weekend,

JAI #101 - Sketch Challenge

Thank goodness for sites like Just Add Ink, and their droves of inspirational design team members to get the poor old mojo-less hordes craftin' and creatin'.

This week's JAI challenge #101 is a Sketch Challenge, and being a nice layered and symmetrical one, it suited me perfectly. Thanks JAI!

I had plenty of sticky fingered help with this creation, but you prolly can't tell that from here (lucky you). Suffice to say, if you cut out a few extra die cuts while you're at it, your busy little almost-one year old helper will have a jolly ol' time eating those while you quickly adhere the rest of your battered creation back together again ;-). Lucky I was using SU's specialty, cover-weight, designer series cardstock...it must have some nutritional value right??

I have added crystal effects all over the tree trunk, but I have great difficulty proving that to you here. The rub-on is one of SU's 'melts-like-butter-onto-the page' rub-ons...from the chit chat set I think.

The little silver butterflies would not have been my first choice embellishments. What I'd really have liked to have used was some of Papertrey Ink's Little Bitty Bird die-cuts. However, I don't have that die, and I am having something of a Papertrey Ink tantrum right now. I am still waiting for the anniversary set that I earned in 2010/11. I have been communicating with them since last October about this, and now they just completely ignore me. My last three (very polite) communications have gone unanswered (after having received their email auto-reply...so I know they received my message), and still no anniversary set. Maybe their customer service team are still on Christmas holidays, who knows? My credit card says I should be thanking them for ignoring me...it is feeling all light and unburdened right now...but I'm still feeling pretty miffed at their lack of courtesy (a simple explanation as to why they felt I shouldn't have the set that I earned following their guidelines would suffice). I hope to get over it sooner or later. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest though.

Best go make the most of the rest of Thumper's afternoon rest time. Might manage to squeeze in another row of crochet...or maybe clean the kitchen sink (Hhhhhhmmmmmm...decisions, decisions... which would you do?).

ETA 1: I think I might go and add a few leaves to this tree tomorrow. It looks like it needs a little something more!

ETA 2: Check out the result here....

Fit for a Crown-toting Princess?

This week Just Add Ink celebrated their 100th 'birthday' with a challenge that was totally befitting of a centenarian...JAI #100 - Just Add Crowns...

I needed to make a special thank you card for the friend who house-sat for us while we were off singing sea shanties and walking the plank...so I decided I'd try and adopt the crown theme and take part in the celebrations too. Easier said than done!! I finally managed to come up with something that didn't seem too daft (well not to me at any rate...you can set me straight if you feel the need ;-)...

You are probably wondering what on earth this card has to do with thanking a house sitter?! Inside I have written....'for looking after our home, like it was your castle!' I thought that fit the bill nicely. What do you reckon?

The 'rub-on' Thanks sentiment is one of my non-SU ones which would be more aptly described as a 'scrub really, really hard for 20 minutes-on' than a 'rub-on'. If you look carefully in the vicinity of the 'N' you can see some of my scour marks where I scrubbed over and over again in an attempt to get all of the darn thing off the transfer sheet and onto the card.....Gggggrrrrrrrr!

And of course, what princess would be complete without a spot of glitter? Unfortunately the crystal effects, which hadn't been opened in at least eight months, kind of blobbed out when I tried to use it...so I ended up accidently obliterating the little heart on the crown...now it is just one huge hulking diamond instead ;-).

Some may also find the colours a bit in your face. No excuses there. I started with a royal purple (of course) and kind of went a bit crazy from there on in!

To top off my woes with this creation, when I looked at it the following morning all the ruffled purple ribbon had lifted up off the card, and was a big unsightly mess that even glue dots couldn't fix. My sewing machine is still aboard Lucey Blue so I had nothing to stitch that wayward ruffly ribbon back down with either...so I ended up prising off half the card front and remaking the purple strip...sans ribbon.

Bix, if you're reading here...you are totally worth the effort :-).

Have a good one crafty folk, and thanks for stopping by!

A Card Cuddle and Goodbye...

I have a 'Thinking of You' card to pop up here today. I made it recently for a special friend, one who I thought could use a little card cuddle!

I have used the reverse applique technique again here. I do love how it looks. The rest was very straightforward...and done in one of my favourite colour combos, light blue, purple and white (aka Baja Breeze, Vintage Violet and Whisper White [methinks]). Apparently this combo is also a hit with one of my favourite little crafting companions...who made a little card for her distance education teacher too!

Today was also a bit of a milestone for all of us...our last day on Lucey Blue (for now ;-). Thanks for taking care of us LB, you did a great job!

So, my next post will be written up on terra firma...a fact which is both exciting and sad to me at the same time. At least I will have all my crafting goodies (and my desk) back at my disposal!!

Have a great weekend,

Hooky Happenings

Yup, still crocheting up a storm here, so thought I'd share a quick pic or two....

It was blowing a gale on Sydney Harbour today and I didn't fancy my lovely blankie taking a swim, so it was modelled by Miss 7 (above), who desperately needs a hair cut!

I am well and truly into the second cycle of colours now. I did a quick calculation, and decided I'd need more yarn than I'd ordered, so I quickly hopped online. I ordered through Deramores again. The first package, the one I ordered on December 26th...arrived in the ACT last week...just over a week after I ordered...amazing! I haven't seen the contents yet, but I'm sure it will be all kinds of woolly wonderful!! I was also heartily chuffed that they still had Sublime on special...so yeah for Deramores...I'll definitely shop there again.

On another topic entirely...the very rocky beach in the background of these photos is called Washaway, and is on Dobroyd Head in Sydney Harbour, immediately opposite the Harbour mouth. We pulled up there this morning because the wind was from the west, and it is a very scenic and protected spot. As I was sitting on the bow and getting in a spot of crochet  (the smallest crew-member was getting in a few quick Zzzzzzs, and the older kids were absorbed in their epic Lego voyage to the moon) I began to notice the people on the beach, and a whole different meaning to the term 'scenic' began to dawn. We were anchored a fair distance offshore, but those shining, white buttocks were a dead giveaway, even at 100m. I quickly checked online, and apparently Washaway is not one of Sydney's three 'legal' naturist beaches...obviously someone had forgotten to mention this to the seven naturists I counted ashore (one article mentioned it once had been a nudie beach...and given its quiet, out-of-the-way locale, it's no wonder). Probably lucky for all, the swell precluded us landing ashore in the dinghy today...I had been trying to work out what I was going to say to the kids, and how funny a day it was going to turn out to be. I also did a quick double-check on the pics above, didn't want anyone copping an eyeful if they zoomed in to check out the stitches (or lack thereof ;-)!

Say It In...Black, White and Silver

I needed a card for an upcoming birthday, and I had recently seen the Annabelle Stamps challenge, Say It In...Black, White and Silver, which looked like fun!

So I decided to use that as a starting point for my card. I thought it'd be pretty straightforward, until I discovered I did not have any silver paper onboard, and my supply of black was seriously small...doh! I then had to ruminate on my problem for a while, and almost settled on embossed aluminium foil, until I found my large silver brads and formulated a plan....simple, but pleasing to my eye.

I have used the Stemmed Flowers stamp set for my flower stems and white twisted paper cord (I love twisted paper cord!) as an embellishment, both are from Annabelle Stamps.

Looking back on my card, I wouldn't use that same sentiment again. I'd like it to be something with a more whimsical or childlike style, my main panel reminds me of a chalkboard....so whimsy or childish seems like it would be a better fit. I'm not having much luck with sentiments of late, am I?

Toodles!

A Little Late Christmas Offering

Just a little Christmas card, a lot late. Better late than never? Who knows, but it is what it is!
This one was inspired by this lovely paper pieced Christmas card by Julie Marshall. Thanks for the inspiration Julie.

It was mostly a low fuss card, me likely that! There was an eanie weanie bit of fuss from me when I discovered at the last minute that I had pretty much neglected Christmas when it came to stocking Lucey Blue with crafty goodness. The Christmas sentiment that I have used here was the only one I could find. It would not have been my first choice...it kind of disappears in the patterned paper and I would have preferred a one-liner that was a little bigger and bolder...but beggars can not be choosers.

Okey dokey......that's all I have to say for now.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend!