Distressed down under

Ok, post #2! Just the one card in this one, and I'm actually pretty happy with how this came out. I have used the sketch from Just Magnolia and played along with Magnolia Down Under's theme of distressing. I was happy with the way the distressing came out on this card. I have tried a couple of techniques I read about as I do not have a distressing tool but they did not work for me, then someone said they just used scissors and I found that works great. I even frayed the ends of my lace and ribbon slightly do give a distressed look! I have also became a fan of sewing on cards, I have to thank the ladies at Anya Ink for starting me stitching with their last challenge, now that I have started I don't know if I can stop :)

Pirates and cookies... what was I thinking?!

Well, I finally finished everything I have been working on the past couple of days. I did consider posting all 3 projects at once but thought it would make the post too long, so first I am going to show you two projects which are kind of related (I will explain later) and i will post my other card separately.
Ok, the challenge over at Anya Ink this week was two different ribbons and any number of circles and staples. So first off I came up with this card, but I was just not completely happy with it. Sorry this pic is not great, I was having trouble getting i good shot again today, especially with this card. The light just did not want to cooperate :) I have used my Matey set from the greeting farm again, I just love these guys. I had initially wanted to leave the center panel blank but decided it made the card look like something was missing, so I used my Matey's map wheel from Stampin' Up and watermark ink so there was a faint design but you could still write a message in the card over the top, unfortunately this hardly came out in the photo, but you get the idea :) I have used a skull and crossbones stamp on the center bottom panel and embossed them in gold, you can kind of make these out.
Here are some close ups of Anya and Ian, the stars of the show!
So because I was not really happy with my first attempt at the challenge (but thought I may as well post it anyway) I had another go, this time I also used the sketch from Anyone For Anya? I got the idea for this project last week but unfortunately I cannot remember where I saw it, it is the dry ingredients for a batch of cookies, you just add the wet ingredients, egg, butter, vanilla, whatever the recipe calls for. This would be a great idea for a little gift around Christmas time, I know my mother is always trying to find small somethings at the last minute and this would be great, especially with gingerbread cookies, or biscotti with dried cranberries and pistachio's, very festive, I might be back with more of these when my Christmas stamps arrive, hehehe. I used Susie Surprise for this project, and this time I left her balloons on. The blue paper in the background has spots on, to keep with the circles theme, but by the time I was done they were almost all covered up! There are staples in the right hand corner and on the pink ribbon, I have used a circle mat under Susie and I have used pink and lace ribbons, phew! I think i covered everything.
Here is a shot of the back, not very interesting:
And here it is on the jar. I just love the idea of cookies in a jar, so clever!
This second project also plays along with:
A spoon full of sugar- kitchen/cooking
Crazy 4 challenges- it's all geometric
Thank you all for looking, I'm sorry it was such a long one :)

Have I got some news...

Just a little note, this week I was thrilled to find that I had made the top 3 at Anya Ink and the top 5 at ABC challenges. I am so honoured to have been picked, I cannot wipe the silly grin off of my face :) Thank you so much ladies, you have brightened up my whole week. I will be back hopefully tomorrow with something. I have been working on a couple of things this week but I'm still a little sick and sluggish and have been napping instead of crafting (that's how I know I really am sick, hehehe)

Baby's 1st christmas card

I have had this image coloured in and sitting around for a while now. I used her more as a tester for my new markers, to see how the colours come out, then thought i may as well use her on something. She is a real cutie. I'm not entirely happy with the way this card came together, I feel like it is missing something. This was my second attempt, I scrapped the first, I think my mojo was not turned on last night, but i was determined to get something completed in the hopes it would get me back in the groove :)

These are the challenges I played along with:

Creative Inspirations - a special card or project with numbers on it

Creative card crew - babies and children

Creative craft challenges - the first one

Dutch dare challenge - sketch

And here is what i came up with:

I used a cuttlebug folder to emboss the diamond Hilda (from motivet) is mounted on and then glittered the raised swirls. There is also glitter on the white fluffy bits of her hat.

The second photo shows where i raised Hilda and the diamond she is mounted on with foam adhesive. I thought the card was looking too plain so I added the two metal snowflakes, but they did not come up too well in the photo.

Thanks for looking and leaving your wonderful comments, I read every one of them and appreciate all your feedback.

Anya Ink #3

I have not been crafting much this week, I have actually been so sick that I did not feel like crafting (I know, I did not think it was possible either) so, fearing that my new inability to craft meant that I was dying, I dragged myself to the doctors yesterday. Apparently, despite the fact I had my tonsils removed nearly 10 years ago, I have tonsillitis! Apparently the same virus can infect your throat anyway, yippi!
Anyways, I am starting to feel better today and managed to finish my entry for this weeks Anya Ink challenge. The challenge this week was stitching, real or faux, so I did a bit of both: real on the card, faux on the treat box. I have never done any real stitching on a card before so this was a real challenge for me, I was worried my machine would chew my card up or the stitching would cause the card to fall apart or something horrible, but it was fine :) I have done several rows of stitching around the top of the 'cupcake' and two rows around the edges of the base. I stitched with a lavender coloured metallic thread so in real life it is pretty and sparkly, but it did not really turn out to well in the photos.
On the box I have faux stitched with my white gel pen around the top edges. Once again, for some reason this did not show up too well in the photos. It is rather overcast here and my pics have not come out the best I'm afraid. As I am looking at the photos now I am noticing that the stitching in my ribbon is really standing out, does this count as stitching too? I have used the Susie Surprise stamp set from The Greeting Farm today. She is a real cutie, the stamp actually has her holding balloons behind her back (the surprise) but i decided not to have them on the image this time, I wanted the cupcakes to be the focus. If i was being totally honest I probably bought this set because it has cupcake stamps and, as i have several times before, I am obsessed with cupcakes, they are the greatest!
These also qualify for the Stamp Something challenge of 'Bling' as i have used metallic threads on my card and crystals on my little treat box.
The theme this week at Cute Card Thursday is 'Candy Corn', so ad anything sweet to your cards, I figure a mountain of cupcakes should do the trick :)

Cupcakes with bling... and cookies

Today I have some baked goods for all of you with sweet teeth :) Unfortunately they are all paper, but this may inspire me to do some baking this afternoon... Mmmm.
I have had the idea of making a cupcake shaped card for a while because i am OBSESSED with cupcakes, and I thought the shape would translate really well into a card. Maybe I will have a crack at strawberries or cherries next? so I thought what better challenge to work with than Cupcake Craft Challenges theme this week of buttons and stitching. I have done a bit of fake stitching around the cupcake base and also all around the 'frosting' but that does not really show up in the photo, and my button is in the center of my flower. The center of my other two flowers is a light blue crystal, which qualifies this card for the Stamp Something Challenge of Bling it, also.
Here is a close up of Hilda enjoying her cookie. I love this Motivet stamp, as soon as i saw her i had to have her :)

I hope you have enjoyed my calorie free treats today, thank you for coming over and leaving your lovely comments.

Too cute to spook!

BOO! hehehe, did i scare you? :)
It is another Halloween themed project today. I did have something a little more interesting in mind, i planned to make a spooky shack, but i was not happy with the way it was coming together, so instead i made some cards. One is using a lighter colour scheme and the other is darker colours. I think over the next year i will have to acquire some more Halloween themed products, dies, stamps and punches, so i will be ready for next year because i am just loving this theme! The colouring of the Tildas comes out better in the photos without the flash on, with the flash they look much too bright, a bit early 90's fluro :)
My first card is lighter colours, more oranges. I made this card first and was disappointed at first because i wanted it to be dark and spooky, that's when i decided to go with the light colours and do a second, darker card.
My second card uses the same Tilda stamp (actually a Christmas stamp but i just removed the gifts from her hands and gave her a pumpkin instead) I also have used my cuttlebug embossing folder on both cards, one of my new fave toys.
Here is the inside of my card: i don't usually decorate the inside of my cards but i liked the idea of this one having a spooky surprise.

The card stock is from my stash and the rest of the papers are from Summertime Designs. I have used crystal effects on Tildas wings and on the pumpkins.
These cards are playing along with a couple of challenges:

Magnolia Down Under - Trick or Treat

Cute Card Thursday - Spook Fest
ABC Challenges - F is for Flying (Tilda has wings for a reason)

Papertake Weekly Challenge - The darker side

Lots of lovely Halloween themes, thanks for coming over to my little blog spot and taking a look.

Guest DT call for the Magnolia Down Under Store

The amazingly wonderful, talented and good looking Kellie (am I off to a good start with the sucking up?) from the Magnolia Down Under store is looking for a guest DT member for the store blog. If you are interested in applying all the details can be found here on Kellie's blog.

I was going to wait until I had created something for this fortnights MDU challenge before I applied in the hopes I would come up with something amazing I could include, but then I figured if I did not put in my submission soon I would get sidetracked (probably trying to figure out how to incorporate one of my Tilda's into a Halloween card:) ) and miss the deadline!

So, below is 6 of my recent creations: These last two do not use Magnolia stamps but I was quite pleased with how they came out and they show some of my more recent water colouring.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Anya Ink gets spooky!

First of all I am proud, excited, thrilled and honoured to announce I was picked in the top 3 for last weeks Anya Ink Challenge. Thank you so much Marcia and Tracy, it was a wonderful end to a terrible week (i would tell you about it but even i am finding it difficult to believe one person could have so much bad luck in only a week, you guys would never believe me :))
so enough about my week, which was crap-tacular, and on to todays creation, which is spook-tacular!
Even though we don't celebrate Halloween here in Australia, i just could not resist all the Halloween challenges going on right now, and all that purple and orange is just wonderful, probably one of my fave colour combos, so festive! So in keeping with the theme I created a trick or treat bag:
Here is a shot without the flash, the colours are a bit more true to life:
This shot with the flash shows where i have used crystal effects on the lettering (cut using my sizzix machine) to make them lovely and shiny:
Here is a close up of Captain Ian (from the 'matey' stamp set) wouldn't you hand over all your candy to this little cutey if he came to your door? This is without flash and shows the colouring better (but still not as vibrant as in real life):
Here he is with flash. I have used my new cuttle bug spider web embossing folder as his background, isn't it the coolest!And lastly a gratuitous candy shot, mouthwatering!
Ok, down to business, this little project played along with a number of challenges;

• Anya Ink - Use printed paper (the awesome spider paper is from summertime designs, and the first time i have used digi papers, i realised when i started putting this together i had no Halloween papers, so much for planning ahead!)
• Simon Says Challenge - Halloween
• A Spoon Full of Sugar - Halloween
• ABC challenge - embossing

Thank you everyone for looking and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Mmm... cupcakes

Thursday was my future mother-in-law's birthday so i thought i would whip her up some cupcakes, and because i was feeling particularly fancy i got out the piping bag and piped the frosting on rather than my usual smearing with a knife. I was so pleased with the final product i thought i would take a photo and show them off.

Ta-dah!

While i was at it i thought i would show off some other baked treats from the boys first birthday, can you guess the theme? yep, it was sesame street, mostly because i am a huge fan of anything Muppet, always have been, but the boys think they are pretty good to. They have been caught kissing Elmo on the TV more than once :)

Here are my Elmo cookies. They were originally cookie monster cookies but i wanted to do Elmo as i had other plans for cookie monster. It just meant i had to add a nose and make the "fur" red.

Here is a close up of one.

I mentioned i had other plans for cookie monster, and here it is:

Cookie Monster cupcakes surrounded by "cookie" cupcakes. Isn't he too cute :)

And now for the crowning glory, the birthday cake:

I had tried to plan this out for months but ended up winging it. I loved the cute little characters and it ended up being a mostly monster cake (i can see Ernie and Big Bird snuck in amongst the monsters)

And here are my little monsters admiring their cake, it was nearly as big as them and complete overkill but i did not care, they only get one first birthday and i wanted it to be special

75 days 'till christmas

Hehehe, check out my haul! I went to the craft expo in Melbourne yesterday and shopped until i nearly dropped! i was so excited about my new purchases after showing a very patient and loving partner, who had spent the day looking after the children (who are little angels for him, so it is not really too big a deal), all my purchases i proceeded to spread them out across the floor to take pictures for my blog. This behaviour received rolled eyes, as you can imaging, but i was very excited. My most exciting purchase were the cuttlebug embossing folders as i do not have a cuttle bug machine... but i had an idea. What i do have is one of those huge red sizzix machines with a converter, so i figured if i was gentle i could use them in there. after this pic was taken i tore open one of the packets and went to try it....SUCCESS! yippi, so stay tuned for some cuttlebug/sizzix magic :)
Anyways, enough waffling (thanks Kellie, great word) here is a little something i whipped up last week and only today got around to taking photos of (blush) this is another one of my new motivet stamps. It is fairly overcast today so they have not come out as clearly as i would have liked, but the weather has been a bit dodgy all week so i will have to make do i guess.
The colouring of the image comes out better in this shot without the flash
With this card I have played along with
Creative Inspirations - Christmas in October, and
Creative Card Crew - It's a celebration (what better reason for celebration is there than Christmas... OK i will concede new baby trumps Christmas, but only just :))

Anya Ink Challenge #1

I was so excited last week when i came across Anya Ink, it is a new challenge blog for lovers of the greeting farm, and i had only days earlier ordered some stamps from there that i had had my eye on for a while, great timing huh! So the first challenge opened on Sunday, create something with pink and brown (and cream or white), and i waited (im)patiently until my new stamps arrived on Tuesday because i desperately wanted to use my Matey set. I have had this Stampin' Up wheel, matey's map, for ages sitting unused because they discontinued the matching stamp set before i got around to buying it and when i saw these adorable little pirates i just had to have them to match my wheel :)

So on to my card, this is first mate Anya, the set also came with captain Ian, he will make an appearance very soon!

The sentiment did not come out too clearly in the photo, it says "enjoy the journey", which i thought appropriate with the pirate/boat theme. I did not have any papers that looked wood-like so i made some up with plain card stock and markers. I was quite pleased with how well it came out:

Here is a shot which shows where i used foam adhesive to raise the images for a 3d effect:

and here is a close up of our happy little pirate:

The challenge over at Anyone for Anya? is - you're Anya. The challenge is to use the Anya/TGF image which you think represents your personality, she looks fun and playful and a little bit dangerous, what do you think me heartys! shiver me timbers!!

The Magnolia Down Under Store is now OPEN!

Exciting news, Kellie Winnell has just opened up a magnolia only online store and is offering Delicious candy! Check out the store here...
She is stocking everything magnolia, stamps, papers, magazines, etc. So if you love magnolias, and who doesn't, go and check it out, you know you want to :)