Just a Punchy little Doodlebug...

I had a little play at the craft desk (that is, those bits of the craft desk that weren't covered by an avalanche of stuff) last night for the Just Add Ink 106 - Sketch Challenge...

This is what I made...

 Pretty happy with how it turned out. I may have gone a bit overboard on distressing the fence palings. That fence looks like it'll keel over in the next light breeze (if the giant bug doesn't knock it over first ;-).

Which brings me to the bug. Obviously it is mean't to be a ladybug, not a doodlebug, but it was the most appropriate sentiment that I could find, and who knows what a doodlebug really looks like anyway? Not me, that's for sure. Wikipedia says that 'doodlebug' may refer to: Armadillidiidae, the pill bug family in the woodlouse suborder...WT? Armadillidiidae?? Perhaps they happen to look a bit like ladybugs too! Gonna argue with me on this? Go right ahead :-).

We ventured out to the Canberra Show bright and early this morning, and the kids had a lovely time...

Notice the shiner? My dear little boy tried to fly out of his car seat at the library yesterday, and landed with a big splat on the asphalt...face first! He can still manage to ham it up for the camera though, bless his little heart.

It's half-way finished!

I said I'd be back later this week to show you where I'm at with the ripply crochet...and here I am.

I started my ripple blanket two months ago on the 24th December, and as of today I am two and a half rows past the midway point. I am so happy. It IS going to be finished in time for winter! In fact, it is going to be finished in time for autumn...and since summer has pretty much not existed, it has been lovely to have it over my legs while crocheting in front of the telly in the evening. I've heard lots of shows of late (I have to look at what I am doing while crocheting...I am a long way off being able to crochet without looking at my work), but I have missed most of the pictures...I end up not really knowing what is going on, but it is still usually at least a little entertaining ;-).

Thumper kindly offered to act as something like a scale...but he had ulterior motives, the little tinker!!

He has wanted to sink his brand new, pearly whites into my bamboo crochet hook ever since I started, and finally he got his chance! Also note the approximately 15 stitches he pulled out at photo left...but that's the beauty of crochet...so easy if you lose stitches, there is no downward propagation effect, no major 'picking up stitches' effort required....you just keep going.

...and here is the little mauler, putting his beautiful chompers on display for you...

...tell you what, we've had some serious angst over those eruptions. Can't wait till they're all done!

Hope you have a great weekend,

Seize the Cupcake{s}....ALL of them

A simple birthday offering I put together late last week for a friend. I did wish it could have been a more sophisticated card (going on the style you'd be forgiven for thinking she was turning about six), but I was short on time and mojo, so it had to suffice.

At least it had an abundance of dazzling diamonds (until about half came off on me)! This was a redeeming feature in my book (the abundance part, not the coming off on me part ;-). The cupcake and sentiment are from a cute set by Hero Arts.

I will post an update on my crochet ripple blanket progress soon. It is almost half finished, and I am very pleased with how it is going. I have recently purchased a few more Sublime colours too, in preparation for starting a Granny Square project as soon as the ripple is finished (and as soon as I have taught myself how to crochet a Granny Square [with Lucy's help of course]...wish me luck ;-).

I was highly amused to learn at work, after telling a male colleague I was crocheting a ripple blanket, that I was 'becoming an old lady'. LOL who knew old ladies had a monopoly on crochet?...lucky ducks!! I can't be too critical though, because I remember thinking that people who stamped and made cards were all old ladies too, back in my pre-papercraft life. Talk about being stereotypical! My own silliness makes me laugh.

Hope your weekend was filled with a ripply, rainbow of colours, whatever you were up to...

Hip-hippo-ray! Punch Art Birthday

Punch-art Gloria wishes you a big birthday hip-hippo-ray!....from a sunny beach on the faraway shores of Madagascar...

Just a little bit of weekend punch-art fun I indulged in this morning, with many thanks to Mercedes for providing the awesome hippo punch-art inspiration.

I couldn't work out what punch Mercedes used for her hippo legs, so I improvised with the Modern Label punch (very good investment that one!!). I also recently acquired an Ornament punch and can't wait to have a go at the multitude punch-art options that one has opened up for me.

Also, after spying a simply gorgeous project on Kim Score's beautiful blog I have just this morning popped in a wee order with Peachy Keen Stamps for some of their ever-so-cute face stamps. Can't wait until they get here. Gonna have some serious fun with those....I'll be sure and pop the final product up here in due course!

That's it from me today. I was up late last night at dinner and a movie. I saw 'This Means War' with Reece Witherspoon and co. It had me in stitches. Well worth a trip to the movies for the laughs!

PS. Has anyone else noticed the new, improved password doovers appearing when you try and leave a comment on some Blogger blogs? It says 'Please prove you're not a robot'.....which I obviously must be, because I have been having the devil of a time decoding what some of the stoopid things say. I just tried four times on one blog, finally got it right, but I'll be leaving a lot less comments in future methinks...they're just too hard for me!

Dusting off the Epson...

We recently dug out our old Epson Photo printer, dusted it off, inked it up and took it for a spin. So, being all print-enabled I have been having some fun playing with Photoshop and printing off some cards and little doo-dahs!

The groovy Delia Red and Teal digi-paper is by moo & puppy on Etsy...you can check it out here.

And while I was having fun playing with iPhoto and Photoshop (did I mention that my awesome hubby recently upgraded the RAM on this 'puter which means it no longer has a terminal seizure whenever I have Safari, Photoshop and iPhoto open at the same time :-)...I also played with some more of our holiday snaps...

Coral in the lagoon at Lady Musgrave Island, Queensland.

Looking from atop Lindeman Island, across to Shaw Island, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland.

Hope you've had a great week!

Where I'd rather be...

Warning: This post has nothing what-so-ever to do with papercrafting, or in fact, any other type of crafting!

The weather in Canberra of late has been positively poopy! Cold (I've had a jumper on for much of this week...and we've even had the heater going at times), overcast and raining. I'm feeling rather out of sorts over this whole faux-summer business. This is the second year in a row...and it sucks!

This is where I'd rather be...

Lady Musgrave Island, Queensland...paradise on earth! At least it felt good to be playing with sunny photos in Photoshop...better than looking out the window ;-).

What about you? Anywhere you'd rather be right now?

JAI #103 Just Add Red and White

I managed to grab a few quiet minutes earlier this morning to make a card for the latest Just Add Ink challenge, JAI #103 - Just Add Red and White...

Let me tell you, it was no easy thing using just red and white. I have several false-start focal 'bits' scattered across my desk, and I almost binned the whole lot in frustration at one point, but after fiddling for so long, I wasn't going to let it beat me.

You may have noticed that I have not been putting up recipes for my projects of late. I have got to the stage where I don't remember what most of the SU products are called anymore, and can't be bothered looking them all up, especially when it is not apparent to me that anyone actually read that stuff! If anyone ever does want to know what I've used, please feel free to leave a comment or send an email and as long as I have some way of contacting you back (and can work out what it was that I used etc)...I'll reply asap.

I also have another of Thumper's birthday photos that I was playing with recently. I have run a whole bunch of Pioneerwoman actions over this shot, and I liked the end result.

See ya!

A CASE of Love Owls...

I first spied these little love-sick cuties on Heather Summers' blog here, and I knew immediately that I would have to CASE them sooner rather than later. Thanks so much for the awesome inspiration Heather!!

I don't have all the SU punches that Heather used, so I've improvised a bit.  My little Love Owls are much smaller than Heather's, and also have bigger pupils, and different wings.

The colours are Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Basic Black, Pink Pirouette and Buckaroo Blue (wow, haven't used that one in a while).

While I was sitting here with Photoshop open I also had a quick play with a recent photo of Mr 5...

I've run Rita's Velvet Peach Photoshop Action on this one, and also played with the eyes and the Cheezel in a separate layer.

Have a great weekend!

Gooey Green Cake

After making our little Thumper a punch art turtle card for his first birthday, I thought a fun matchy, matchy turtle cake might be in order too. So I scoured my trusty 'Woman's Weekly Kids' Party Cakes' book and found Tommy Turtle...who I thought fit the bill perfectly!

I had two little helpers lending me a hand (or four) at various stages throughout the making of this cake...it always makes the whole process that much more fun!

And the final verdict....?

Thumper likey! This photo of our little man enjoying his birthday cake has been edited in Photoshop using the Velvet Peach Action created by Rita of The Coffeeshop Blog. Thanks for another great Photoshop Action Rita!

ETA: I just wanted to show you another action that Rita has recently added to her blog...the Instant ColorBar Action! It is so much fun to play with, and what a great way to pick colour combos for cardmaking, scrapping etc!

Nightie, night now!