Creative juices...

For some weird reason (most likely alcohol-induced) I began scrapping and card making like a woman possessed at the retreat. Although I didn't end up doing that much, I turned out a few layouts and cards that I was happy with.

I took this photo of Al just after a race at the State Titles in Gympie the weekend before last. I was actually testing out the aperture priority settings on my camera! They must have worked, cause everyone loves this photo of him, even Al himself!! I just hope I did it justice... this one was completely alcohol induced :)



This is Al, his 2 brothers and their Mum on Mother's Day this year. Loved this photo, but Al's hair is looking pretty weird... even he said so!! Al's on the far right.


This was my first create for the retreat. I tried mod podging the butterflies from a napkin, but I didn't peel the white layer off underneath, so it showed through a bit. I was still pretty happy with the end result though. Love this pic of Aiden and I on the steps of the cubby. He's such a cuddle pie!! Oh, and there's another one of Leone's famous lollipop flowers! Love them!! Thanks for showing me how to make them, Leone!


Here are the cards I made (sorry about the bad pics, I took them after dark :( )

I coloured the gorgeous Whiff of Joy stamp using Simonne's distress inks, and I just adored using them. I never even thought to use them before. Love the soft effect though! I added just a couple of those cute little roses (distressed them, and curled the stems), and they were the perfect addition. The heart card is from a PageMap sketch.


This pic is pretty dark, but these are really bright papers, and look much better in real life. These are the cards I created using some of the other PageMaps sketches. I also made a lollipop flower (thanks to Leone's instructions), and I used Simonne's gorgeous lace Martha Stewart punch!! Love it!


using up some 7gypsies scraps... a gorgeous StampinUp flourish & Martha Stewart lace punch, both courtesy of Simonne (both now on my MUST HAVE list), the gorgeous Prima roses that we ordered through Scrap Pile, and a quote stamp from Helen. Thanks girls for all your little additions to these cards!


and here's one I made just before I left for the retreat... I used copics to colour my new Whiff of Joy stamp that I won in Elisabeth Bell's blog candy! OMG those stamps are gorgeous!!!!! I used a mod podged napkin on transparency (thanks to KarenB), and some kindy glitz on the wings and clouds.

I've fallen in love with...

my new stamps! Yep, I'm hooked on the super cute Sugar Nellie stamps!!

Mel challenged me to make a card using one of the stamped images before the end of the weekend. So here it is...

although I have a feeling you will be seeing a few more of these in the upcoming weeks ;)

Thanks sweetie, and your little Tilda card is just gorgeous!

I'm just waiting for my order of COPIC markers to arrive now, and then I'll really be crusing!! I just used some old ZIG photo markers I had lying around to colour little Daisy, but they started pilling the paper. I also tried using watercolour pencils, but it just took too way long for me - for those of you who don't know me well, I'm not exactly patient!

I also got to play with these gorgeous 7gypsies papers that I've been ogling for a LONG time, and finished Karen's challenge over at Scrap Pile. A little late, but glad I got it finished, as I really adore Karen's work, and didn't want to miss this opportunity to tap into her style!

The photo is Mum and I on Mother's Day at the Bell Tower Restaurant in Booie. It's gorgeous up there, and we had such a fantastic day! So glad we made the effort to travel home to see her, even if it was only for the day :) I think Mum really enjoyed herself too :)

and here's a close up of the cute little homemade transparency retro flower that Mel made for me while she was here in April. She stamped an autumn leaves stamp onto some scrap transparency and punched little retro flowers. Nice and easy and a really cheap embellie :)

A lovely day was had by all...

My Mother-in-law & I decided that since the boys were away, we'd shout ourselves to a lovely breakfast at Sizzler with the kids... so off we went at 8am this morning. What we didn't realise, was that every man and their dog had the same idea! We waited in the line patiently for around 3/4 hour, and the kids were surprisingly very well behaved, considering they hadn't eaten anything since waking up about 2 hrs earlier. We had a great time and the kids had a ball, eating ice cream, smarties and jelly beans for breakfast! I think we'll be back for a lunch soon (and hopefully without the line-ups).

Al left for Gympie karting early this morning, and will hopefully be home before the kids go to bed. They really miss him when he's away. We celebrated Mothers' Day yesterday, with a lovely cooked breakfast and take-away Thai for dinner.

You wouldn't believe what I did?

I was making my Mothers' Day card for Jewls CC challenge. Now it takes me ages to make just one card, as I am usually quite pedantic about the placement etc. Anyway, I damn well stuck it down the wrong way, so the card opens from the wrong side. I could kick myself, I was soooo mad at myself! I'm sure I will be checking next time... I think I am a little overworked - can you tell? LOL!

Anyway, here it is....


at least you can't tell from the front!