Paper Crafter's Library Subscription Competition...

Good Morning!

I'm just posting here, in the hope of winning a one year subscription to the Paper Crafter's Library.

You can enter too, just hop along to THIS blog post...and follow the instructions.

A special thanks to Mae....whose blog I first saw the competition mentioned on!

Good luck everyone!!

Easter Punch Art Shadowbox...

Still having lots of fun here with these shadowboxes. The only problem is they take me a couple of days to complete...with little windows of opportunity snatched here and there (during Thumper's nap-time, after bed-time, etc). I much prefer to get my projects done in one sitting (call me an instant gratification-type of gal), but this staggered approach does allow me to think about what I am going to do next, and how I am going to do it, so I seem to be making less boo-boos. I guess that's gotta be counted as a win!

Again, the card front is super simple. I may go back and add a small Easter sentiment on the front too, but I did not have anything appropriate, and I really am just trying for a wrapper effect, the inside being the focal bit in my mind.

Well, that concludes this morning's play-time for me. For some reason my house does not appear to cleaning itself. It must be broken! I shall have to see about getting it fixed....quickly.

I have another shadowbox idea brewing in the old cerebral cortex, but I might leave it to simmer some...you know, enhance the flavours ;-).

Thanks for visiting my place, and have a lovely last-day-of-the-work-week!

Crochet Ripple Blanket Update...

 Hooray! I'm almost three quarters of the way through my crochet ripple blanket project :-).

So far I have:

• 5 repeats of 6 colours, with 4 rows of each colour (1 + 2 + 1) per repeat, for a total of 120 rows
• 120 rows of 283 treble stitches (on a 4.0 mm bamboo hook), for a total of 33960 treble stitches!
• used approximately 30 x 50g balls of Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK (but I have lots of scabby little leftovers from each ball that I can use for smaller projects like Granny Squares).

 I have another shadowbox card ready to photograph tomorrow....fingers crossed the sun is out.

Punch Art Shadowbox MkII

 There were quite a few things I wanted to change after I completed my first attempt at a shadowbox card yesterday. So I got straight to it last night while the mojo seemed to be flowing, and now I have Shadowbox MkII to share...

 

As you can see, I kept the front of my shadowbox card really simple. I figured the inside said enough for both! Don't you think the little SU Tag with heart (on the front) looks like a message in a bottle? No? Well, maybe my imagination was working over-time...

This is a really meaty little card when it's all said and done, and may not pass Oz Post's 5mm thickness rule...so it may need some extra postage (or failing that, a box ;-)! But it does close...promise!

Did anyone else notice that I'd used the little girl face for my sailor boy yesterday? Well I didn't, not until this morning. So obviously, that's been remedied now too. The set I used is the Peachy Keen PK-490 Everyday Character Face Assortment. And again, the original inspiration for this little sailor boy in a shadowbox card is from Kim Score.

I am well pleased with how this one turned out, and I can tell you now...there will be more of these little treasures on my horizon (you do know that I can hear you groaning, don't you?!).

Ta ta!

Punch Art: Sailing Shadowbox...

 As I mentioned this morning, I joined the latest uStamp with Dawn and Friends: Cards With Cool Moves - 2012, and the bonus tutorial by Erika Clark included directions for a shadowbox card! I've never made one before, but have wanted to for yonks. So... armed with my newly found uStamp know-how (and a little unexpected free time, bestowed upon me by a wonderful hubby ;-), I set upon making my first shadowbox.

I have also been meaning to CASE a simply beautiful punch art card by Kim Score (check it out here)...and this was the perfect opportunity!

I was experimenting a little as I went, and think that I might start again and change a few things, but I am very pleased with the general appearance (and especially the so, so cute Peachy Keen face :-).

Gotta run now!
Ciao, ciao...

Colour Throwdown #182

 At some point during the week I happened upon this week's Colour Throwdown challenge, and my mouth watered at the colour combo (and the cute pin cushion pic too)...

We've just moved into Autumn here in the land of Oz, and these pretty colours have a distinctly Autumnal feel to me.

Here is what I have put together...

The tractor punch art was inspired by Lisa at Avatar cooee, and you can see her cute Timmy tractor tutorial here. Thanks you Lisa! If you want to know what I've used, drop me a line (with your email included) and I'll get back to you.

This morning I have joined the latest uStamp with Dawn and Friends - Cards with Cool Moves 2012:

...it does not officially start until March 23rd, but there is a bonus tutorial up already! As I have a little free time on my hands today, I'm gonna go have a play with that right now :-). Hoping some of my blog buddies will come and join uStamp too!!

Have a good one,

Lil Monster Wishes...

 This week I discovered and joined the Annabelle Stamps - Stamp Embellish Create ning site:

It is a is a lovely, free community for sharing cardmaking, stamping techniques and crafting ideas!

Once I'd found my way around the site (and said hello to a few fellow crafters and bloggers), I found a great video tutorial by Sue Kohler, on how to make groovy dotty textures using Copic markers. It looked so fab I had to give it a try!

 

My Copic colouring skills still leave a lot to be desired, but I'll get there one day! In the meantime, I'm having lots of fun, and watching lots of YouTube video tutorials too.

I have used Annabelle Stamps Lil Monster again...he is so sweet and goofy, and so much fun to colour. The gorgeous, textured, brown background paper is from the Tiny Woods collection by Kaisercraft (swoon), and it reminded me so much of monster fur, that I thought it was perfect for this job.

I've also added a few big dollops of Crystal Effects to the balloon, eyes, tooth and toes. I love how it makes these things just jump off the card.

The sun is out here today, and we have a lovely long weekend to look forward to. Hope yours is lovely too!

This is worth thinking about...

How good will this...

...be looking in the future?

Save The Reef… from coal | Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Live Action! A painted picture for UNESCO | Greenpeace Australia Pacific

How many more of these....

(Shen Neng 1 - grounded off Rockhampton, April 2010 - sourced here)

 ...do you think we'll see if the planned new coal port goes ahead?

It's a bit scary when one of the first things you think, upon reading the above-linked article, is "Thank goodness I got to see the reef before it was completely trashed!!!".

Have you seen our Great Barrier Reef? Maybe you should make it a priority! ...and don't forget to sign the petition too.

Say It In...Brown, Olive and Mustard

 When I saw this week's challenge on the Annabelle Stamps blog, I knew that I would be able to use one of my gorgeous new Annabelle stamps that arrived here only this week!

 This week's challenge is:

...and I've used the ever-so-cute, Lil Monster with balloon stamp. Now, I'm a bit embarrassed about the quality of my colouring, especially as Andrea has used the same stamp and has coloured hers brilliantly...but I hope you'll forgive me ;-). My colouring skills need quite a bit of work (starting with some 'how to stay in the lines' training)...!

Dodgy colouring aside...isn't he just the cutest little monster you have ever seen? I love him to bits, and he reminds me of The Gruffalo. We are big Gruffalo fans here!

Thanks for visiting!

Sprinkling Some Delicious Cuppie Colour...

 ...on this wet and miserable weekend! After a week full of rain, and more rain, and some horrid cold, and a bit more rain (did I mention all the rain we've had this week? ;-)...I felt like I had to play with some beautiful bright colours at my craft desk yesterday. So I sprinkled on a liberal dose of bright cuppie colour....and adorned them with mounds of dazzling diamonds...of course!

One good thing has come of all this miserable weather though. My crochet is going great guns. Nothing beats sitting on the couch crocheting under a big warm ripple blanket, on a cold and wet day!