Garden of Life

My daughter and I spent today hiding from the 36 degree celcius heat in Canberra (which is nothing compared to the 40+ some other Ozzie capitals scored today).

First we went and chilled out in front of Madagascar II at the cinema, then we did a little shopping and had lunch at Tuggeranong. It was a nice way to spend some mother/daughter time.

This afternoon we did some craft together under the cooler, while watching the tennis (thank goodness they closed the roof of the Rod Laver Arena...those poor players would have DIED in the heat....Melbourne being one of those 40+ capitals I mentioned above!).

This is the card I made today:


Ingredients (from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Textured and plain Basic Black, Whisper White
Paper: Papertrey Ink Black & White Basics
Ink: Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet, Papertrey Ink True Black
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Garden of Life
Accessories: Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet Luxe Satin Ribbon, miscellaneous large black brads, crystal effects, SNAIL, dimensionals.

I have painted the crystal effects onto the flower, stem and leaf with a small paintbrush. I love the effect that this gives.

Gotta run....it is dinner time!

See ya,
Sam.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

...the skies are full of fireworks!




We took the boat out onto Lake Burley Griffin tonight, to watch the Australia Day fireworks. It was SO much fun!! It was possibly the most amazing vantage point I have ever had for fireworks. We anchored just off Commonwealth Bridge, and many of the fireworks actually went off from the bridge, and also from the roof of the nearby National Library building. It was a balmy, beautiful evening on the water, and a simply perfect way to wrap up Australia Day 2009 (for the Oz Day police: yes we also had lamb on the BBQ, and pavlova for dessert..YUMMY).

We've only just got home now and it is 11 pm. The kids were amazing...dozed in the car on the way home, and straight to bed with no fuss at all. Bless their sleepy little hearts.

I started another CSCC card last night while watching Jelena Dokic play an awesome Australian Open fourth round game of tennis against Alisa Kleybanova. Jelena won, but Alisa didn't give away the match easily. It was hard fought and won on Jelena's part, but made for excellent viewing. I was sitting on the floor right in front of the telly during the last set, bouncing up and down and squeaking in excitement (if that doesn't give you scary mental pictures, nothing will ;-)!


(image sourced from this webpage).

OKAY Sam...enough jabbering! Just to remind you, this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie is The Wizard of Oz...because, because, because, because, because:


...and here is a pic of my card:


Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Only Orange, Whisper White, Yoyo Yellow, Gable Green, Real Red, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Soft Sky Classic Ink
Accessories: Cuttlebug folders (Mosaic and Swirls), Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles, scallop circle punch, crystal effects, liquid pearls, miscellaneous floral bling, sponge, SNAIL, glue dots.

The birds flying 'over the rainbow' were made using the scallop circle punch. The cloud effect was made using a mask of scallop circle edges and sponging over this in Soft Sky classic ink (see here for a great tutorial on this technique). The Emerald City (and the sky immediately around it) has been painted with Liquid Pearls in White Opal (to give a shimmery, magical feel). The yellow brick road has been cut out freehand using a craft knife. The 'bricks' on the road have been painted with crystal effects for...a brick-like effect:


There is no sentiment. I toyed with printing something out...but decided the card didn't need it...and besides, the card could be used for a number of different events this way. The metallic element could be either the liquid pearls, which give a slightly metallic effect IMO...or the bling flowers (whose backs are painted with sliver paint)...ok! I'm stretching it here, but its late, and I need to go to bed!

Another thing, the colours may be a just a little bit more vibrant than those on the silver screen, but it is called a creative challenge...'nuf said ;-).

Well, now it is after midnight and it is waaaaay past this little cookie's bedtime. Nighty night stampers!

Sam.

PS. To all those who asked about the state of my craft room after the creation of yesterday's ruby red slipper...YES, it is COVERED in romantic red glitter. So am I, my kids, hubby, the cat, and my mum....ooops :-).
PPS. If you made it this far...well done. Sorry for the long winded post, with so many sidetracks!

There's no place like home...

...or if you are Judy Garland's foot, there's no place like the inside of a ruby red, sparkly shoe.

In case you have no idea what I am talking about...four words...Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge, where this week's challenge movie is: The Wizard of Oz....of course...because, because, because, because, because...


This week the girls also added the challenge of making a metallic component a part of our projects.

This is my contribution...I think I will try and make something a little more 'serious' later this week...but in the meantime, I thought this would be cute:


Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Real Red
Accessories: SNAIL, two-way glue pen, romantic red glitter, glue dots, dimensionals, small cello bags, turquoise grosgrain ribbon (retired) and Pascal's Columbines.
I figured that Romantic Red glitter would pass for a metallic component! I think this would make a nice party favour for a Wizard of Oz-themed party. I went out looking for blue lollies, because I wanted them to represent the blue of Dorothy's socks.

You can download the template for this shoe from this website.

I'll be back later this week, when I've figured out what I'll really do...

Sam.

A Happy Heart

Well, it is nearly midnight here, and I'm sitting here watching one of my favourite TV shows, McLeod's Daughters. It is the last season, and for some reason they are screening multiple shows, back-to-back until all hours of the night. I guess they are just trying to wrap it up (Grrrrrrrr ;-).

I can smell a bushfire, and my eyes are stinging because of it, but I looked online and I think it is down in the Budawang National Park on the coast (almost two hours drive away), and the smoke must be blowing this way. I get a bit nervous when I smell bushfire smoke, ever since the 2003 fires, when the fires came within 200 m of our house. I hadn't been close to a bushfire before then.....and they are pretty darn scary!


This shot was taken near our house by a neighbour just before 2 pm on January 18th 2003, and no...that isn't the sun at photo right. The fire got MUCH closer than this later in the afternoon, it followed bushland tracts/nature reserves and came right around behind us, but by that time we were too busy to be taking photos.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I really just wanted to post a card I finished this evening. It was inspired by this beautiful card by Kirsty Brown. Thanks for the inspiration Kirsty!

Here is my card:


Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Rose Red, Whisper White and Kraft
Stamps: A Happy Heart
Inks: Rose Red and Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
Accessories: 1" double stitched Rose Red grosgrain ribbon, miscellaneous pink buttons from Bizzy Becs, DMC white embroidery thread, SNAIL, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals and Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Thanks for visiting and I hope that you have a lovely, relaxing Sunday!

Sam.

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #1

I've been a big admirer of Karen Giron's beautiful blog, the sweetest thing, for a while now...it comes under the special heading 'favourite US SU blogs' in my Google reader :-). Please go take a look at her lovely work, I think you will agree that her designs are the sweetest things!

But I digress...what I came here to show/tell you about is another card that I have made for Karen's first sketch challenge, sweet sunday sketch challenge #1:


I made my card last night while watching NCIS...but I didn't finish it because I wanted to get to bed a bit early so I could get up at 3:30 am and watch Barack Obama's inauguration. After making that big effort, I forgot to set my alarm (DOH!), and slept right through until 6 am...but I'm catching up on the events now instead :-). What an exciting day! To my US readers..congratulations on the inauguration of your new President.

There I go again..off on a tangent...sorry. I am sure you didn't come here to read about my TV watching schedule, so I'll get back to business. Here is my card:


Ingredients (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Whisper White, Textured Basic Black
Paper: Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Cheery Chat
Ink: Basic Black Classic Ink
Accessories: Scallop edge punch, crop-a-dile, Francheville black grosgrain ribbon, Provo Craft Asterisks dies, Spellbinders Nestabilities square and scalloped square dies, two-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, SNAIL, glue dots, The Robin's Nest Hardy Ivy Dew Drops.

Hope you all have a lovely day, thanks for dropping by!

Sam.

Cinema Saturday and Sweet Sunday...

I made this card for two challenges. The first of which is the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge (CSCC). This week, the CSCC is the movie Casablanca:


This week the CSCC girls decided to spice it up a bit and added a colour challenge as well:


So, I had theme and colour taken care of for me...and I was here thinking how could I further reduce my responsibilities (SUCH a slacker). Answer: use a sketch challenge as well! So I pulled up Karen Giron's brand new Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge too:


...and here is my card:


Ingredients (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Whisper White and Textured Basic Black
Paper: White fibrous paper and White paper with silver printing, both of miscellaneous origin
Accessories: Epson inkjet printer, SU CSS Hand font, Photoshop, white miscellaneous ribbons, Kaiser floral rhinestones, SNAIL and glue dots.

Thanks for the challenges girls!

Have a great week.
Sam.

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #26

I went back to work this week...so there was less time for stamping, but I did manage to make a little card for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #26:


This is the card that I made for this challenge:


Ingredients (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Rose Red and Whisper White
Paper: Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Anna Mae by Our Craft Lounge, Classic Numbers and Think Happy Thoughts
Inks: Basic Black, Rose Red and Taken with Teal Classic Ink
Accessories: Copic markers, white eyelets, crop-a-dile, aluminium circle metal edge tags, 1 1/4" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, Crystal Effects, ticket corner punch, 1" Rose Red double stitched ribbon, Francheville ribbon, SNAIL and dimensionals.

Have a great weekend crafters!

Sam.

Mojo Monday 69

...well, I guess it is actually Mojo Tuesday on this side of the globe, but who's going to quibble a day ;-).

This week's Mojo Monday sketch is:


...and here is my card:


Ingredients (all from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Textured Basic Black, Textured Whisper White, Real Red, Whisper White and Basic Black plain cardstock
Stamps: Little Lady by Papertrey Ink
Ink: Real Red and Basic Black Classic Ink, Versamark
Accessories: Paper piercer, piercing template and mat, white gel pen, Swiss Dots and Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folders by Provocraft, Circle and Scallops Nestabilities by Spellbinders, large oval punch, wireworks (retired), black grosgrain ribbon by Francheville, 'A Perfect Day' rub-ons, miscellaneous bling, Pretties kit, clear embossing powder, heat tool, SNAIL, dimensionals, crystal effects and mini glue dots!

FAR OUT! I might have been better off detailing the accessories I did not use for this card.

Thanks for visiting!
Sam.

BTW...you remember a couple of posts ago, I mentioned the local hoods laying rubber somewhere nearby in the middle of the night? Well, last night they laid it in our driveway:


Nah...just kidding, this is what made that mess:


My cat is in awe (you can just see him in the bottom right of the photo), and he has decided this is what he wants to be when he grows up....shame his name is not Bob...hehehehehehe (I crack myself up sometimes ;-).

Shades of Blue...

We have some birthday's coming up shortly for some little friends of ours (CSCC girls, if you are reading, I'm not talking about hobbits here ;-), so I thought I'd try and get a head start on their cards.

I have also recently stumbled on another challenge blog called Our Creative Corner, and this week's challenge is to use make a card using only two shades of blue and a neutral colour...check out the details and some beautiful samples here.

So last night, while watching 'While You Were Sleeping' I made one of the birthday cards that I need, using the OCC colours:


Ingredients (all products Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Textured and plain Night of Navy, textured and plain Whisper White
Paper: Spring Silhouettes and Notebook Designer Series Paper
Ink: Night of Navy and Soft Sky Classic Inks
Stamps: Classic Numbers and Space Ships & Robots by My Cute Stamps
Accessories: A Perfect Day rub-ons, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots emboss folder, Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities, Pewter Jumbo Eyelets, Crop-a-dile, clear emboss powder, heat tool, two-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, 1/2" circle punch, SNAIL, dimensionals and craft knife.

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you have a good day!
Sam.

PS. Speaking of shades of blue...if you ever need a really good chuckle you should check out Lydia's blog Understand Blue. This lady is not only a very talented stamper...she tells the funniest stories. Thanks so much for making me laugh Lydia, I really look forward to your posts popping up in my reader!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #37

I haven't participated in one of Kristina's Color inspirations for quite some time, and still having a little Christmas holiday time on my hands I thought I'd participate in this week's:


I sat down to it last night (with the tennis in the background), and by Midnight I had the layout, stamps and general direction of where I was going...but I just couldn't make it look right. So I headed to bed and thought I'd sleep on it.

That would have been all fine and dandy if the local hoods hadn't been boosting cars are dragging them on the road a couple of streets away. I lay there listening to them leaving their big important marks on the roads and grinding the gears (and wishing they'd grow up) for at least an hour (sorry about the whinge...just had to get it off my chest). Anyway, when I woke this morning I didn't have much more idea or inspiration than I did at midnight last night...but it is going to have to do!


It looks a little naked IMO...probably could have used a sentiment along the bottom...but it ended up looking a little too crowded for me. I like the layout and the stamps a lot! I have substituted Soft Sky for the Baja Breeze, which we don't have.

Ingredients:

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White and Textured Chocolate Chip
Paper: Spring Silhouette and Summer Picnic Designer Series papers
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Heart Prints
Inks: Old Olive Classic Ink
Accessories: SU Scallop Edge Punch, SU 1/16" Circle, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, SNAIL, Dimensionals and Glue Dots.

That's all there is to it! Have you noticed how much I like layers and symmetry (how could you not, hey?). This is the reason I've been looking at sketch challenges. Trying to shake my dependence on symmetry....and try something a bit different. Obviously I didn't succeed here, but there is always tomorrow :-).

Hope your day is a good one.
Sam.

Such a big day!

I started another new baby card on Wednesday night, and had planned to finish it first thing yesterday morning...but we got seriously sidetracked yesterday (a little more on that later) so I've only just finished it now.

I decided to use this week's Colour Throwdown #24 for my colours:


I don't have any Baja Breeze, as it has not been released in Australia yet...so I have substituted Soft Sky instead. This is my card:


It may be a bit hard to see in this image, but I have put dots of Crystal Effects on the darker dots on the butterfly wings, and in the centres of the little flowers on the Confetti Cream background layer.

Ingredients:

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Mellow Moss, Whsiper White and Confetti Cream cardstock
Paper: Stampin' Up! Spring Silhouettes Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Papertreyink Butterfly Kisses and Stampin' Up! Nursery Necessities
Inks: Soft Sky and Basic Black
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Up! Wireworks Silver (retired), Ticket Corner Punch, Crystal Effects, Papertrey Ink Leaf Ribbon, SNAIL, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Styled Silver Hodgepodge and Designer Label Punch
Techniques: Two-step stamping

...now, back to our big day yesterday! My hubby bought a secondhand trailer sailer over Christmas and he has been tinkering with it for the last week:


Finally, it was ready to go so off we went to Lake Burley Griffin at about 9 am. Launching it into the Lake was harder than it should have been due to no fault of the boat (no names, no court cases ;-). While my husband was thigh deep in water struggling with the boat, a complete stranger came up, put on his waders and went in too and together they managed to get the boat off the trailer. Then a second stranger helped me tie it to the pier while hubby was extracting the car and trailer from the lake (the kids were still in their car seats...we didn't want to have to worry where they were while we were negotiating the boat ramp etc). It was so nice to meet some lovely people who were only too happy to help and chat.

We got the kids done up in their groovy life jackets:


Then we got them and all our stuff aboard (talk about packing the kitchen sink), and away we went. We had some lunch, sailed around a bit, stopped at the National Museum where I got some icecreams, sailed a bit more then decided it was warm enough for a swim....so we chucked out the anchor then followed it overboard:




I even went in (darn, we don't have any shots of that big event ;-) and the water temp was BEAUTIFUL!

After swimming we had afternoon tea, had a little rest then took the boat to its new mooring. We didn't get home until almost 6 pm, but it was a fabulous day! Everyone slept REALLY well last night.


Thanks for visiting :-).
Have a great day,
Sam.

PS. Thank you so much for all the wonderful messages I got regarding my Design Team selection. They are really appreciated!

Wild About You...Girl!

Here is a little new baby card I made last night:


The layout is a CASE of this one by Karen Giron, and I'm still entranced by Karen Thomas' colours from here.

Ingredients:

Cardstock: Textured Pumpkin Pie, Smooth Whisper White and Rose Red
Papers: Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper
Stamps: Wild About You and Nursery Necessities
Ink: Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red Classic Ink, Black Stazon
Accessories: Rose Red 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain, Whisper White Taffeta, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, SNAIL, Dimensionals, White Opal Liquid Pearls, Glue Dots, Versamark, Clear Emboss Powder, Heat Gun and Stamp-a-ma-jig
Techniques: Baby wipe inking - See Beate's tutorial here.

A bit of exciting news for me...

WOW...I just have a little piece of very exciting news to share with you! I have been selected as a Design Team member for Bizzy Becs. This is a very great honour for me, and I can't wait to start working with Bec's beautiful designs:


There are four of us on Bizzy Becs Design Team, and my three colleagues are very talented crafters. You can check out their amazing work on their blogs:

Cheryl Joshua,
Jessica Dizon,
Lauren Smith

Thanks so much for this lovely honour Bec. I hope that I can do your designs justice!

Have a great day everyone (it is looking like a lovely sunny one here in the ACT), and thanks for stopping by.

Sam.

Mojo Monday 68

I've never participated in one of these Mojo Monday sketch challenges before, but was feeling in need of some Mojo...and it happened to pop up on my Google Reader.

This is the Mojo Monday Sketch #68 for Monday 5th January 2009:


...and this is my card:


Now, first I have to give thanks to the wonderfully talented Karen Thomas. This fabulous card she recently made was my inspiration for the colours.

The list of ingredients for this card is:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper and Watercolour paper
Stamps: Hero Arts - Seize The Cupcake and Stampin' Up! Family Phrases
Inks: Timber Brown Stazon, Stampin' Up! Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie & Regal Rose Classic Ink
Accessories: Stampin' Up! 1" Rose Red Double Stitched Ribbon, Pebbles Inc. I kan-dee Orange ribbon, Stampin' Up! Styled Silver Hodgepodge, miscellaneous orange eyelets, Crystal Effects, White Opal Liquid Pearls, AED Pink Soda Glitter, Stampin' Up! Ticket Corner Punch, Crimper, Aquapainter, Crop-a-dile, SNAIL adhesive, Dimensionals and Glue Dots.


Now, my kids are stage diving off the couch...onto each other...so I'd better go see about that ;-).

Have a great day,
Sam.

Mamma Mia

This week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge movie is Mamma Mia:


It is another movie I had not seen until yesterday! At least it was very easy to find at the video shop ;-).

The movie is pretty funny and quirky...and I tried to make my card a wee bit quirky too:


My inspiration was the opening scene showing the island of Kalokairi and the ocean at night, while Sophie is out posting her three letters. I loved the deep blues and blacks of the ocean, sky and island in that sequence...very romantic!

I have used some beautiful dark blue, shimmery paper (of unknown origin) to represent the midnight blue night sky and ocean (the shimmery paper hopefully giving the impression of a starry night sky and its reflection on the water). I ran the ocean piece through my cuttlebug with a wood grain embossing folder in order to give it some ocean-like texture (I don't have any water texture embossing dies). I will note that due to my having made the cuttlebug sandwich a bit too thick the paper tore in several places, but luckily that only adds to the ocean-like texture (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

I punched a little moon out of white cardstock and then covered it in White Opal Liquid Pearls. I also painted some of the White Opal Liquid Pearls onto the ocean to give the moon's reflection. After it had dried, I painted on some Crystal Effects and then sprinkled on some of Stampin' Up!'s Chunky Sprinkles in Crystal Iris. Finally I added some translucent white acrylic hearts (also out of my stash of miscellaneous embellishments) on the moon reflection (to tie in with the theme of my card - Follow Your Heart...or a moonbeam...whichever works for you ;-):


The island is a torn piece of Basic Black cardstock. The sentiment is a Stampin' Up! rub-on from the Eastern Elegance pack. The two hearts are punched from Real Red cardstock (using an old Creative memories heart punch) and then covered in Ruby Red Liquid Pearls. I added some Crystal Effects, Crystal Iris Chunky Sprinkles and another smaller, Ruby Red covered heart in the centre of each, for a bit of bling and dimension:


This creation took a while to come together. I already had all my mess spread out on the dining table (much to my husband's dismay).....but it gives me the most room. I started my card, decided I didn't like where it is going...walked away and did something else for a while, walked past it a few times, decided to use something else, sat and tinkered for a while, left, came back, left, came back, had lunch, hung some washing, tinkered, had afternoon tea with the little ones, sat back down and finally finished it...and about 5 hours later I was wondering why it had taken me so long...DOH! I am very happy with the way it turned out though :-)....so it was worth it!

It is a bit warm here today (32 degrees celcius or about 91 Farenheit)...but my Flannel Flowers are still looking pretty:


Have a great day,
Sam.

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2009 is full of happiness and good health for you all!!

I just have a couple of pics to share with you. I was motivated to use pinks, blues and greys by this little Pumpkin Patch skirt I got for my daughter:


I scrunched up a whole bunch of cardstock, trying to recreate a fabric effect. The idea never quite came together, but I had fun trying:


Materials used:
Textured Basic Gray cardstock, Going Gray cardstock, Rose Red cardstock, Basic Gray cardstock, Regal Rose cardstock, Cuttlebug Dies and Folders, Eastern Elegance Rub-Ons, Filigree Designer Brads, Dimensionals and SNAIL adhesive.

For this next card I used some of the scrunched up cardstock, punched out various sized hearts using some old punches I have here, glued them onto a piece of cardstock and then painted them with Crystal Effects for the high gloss finish. The heart is a piece of Stampin' Up! chipboard which I have coloured with Tempting Turquoise classic ink and then covered with Light Blue Chunky Sprinkles:




Materials Used:
Rose Red cardstock, Tempting Turquoise cardstock, Regal Rose cardstock, Linen Background stamp, Tempting Turquoise classic ink, Tempting Turquoise brads, Rose Red 1" Double-Stitched Ribbon, On Board Accents chipboard, Crystal Effects, Light Blue Chunky Sprinkles Glitter, Dimensionals and SNAIL adhesive.

And last for tonight, I wanted to show you a pic of a beautiful visitor we had in our garden this morning. I did a bit of research, and apparently this is an Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly - Papilo Aegeus:


She was sunning herself on my Photinia hedge. Isn't she magnificent?

All the best,
Sam.